Ponting cheered by display

The partnership between Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman was a turning point

Australia captain Ricky Ponting insisted he was happy with the way his team had performed in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar series against India.

Australia set India a target of 299 on the final day today and four early wickets gave them real hope of victory.

India though, having abandoned their pursuit of victory after that poor start, dug in to claim the draw, finishing with 177 for four in their second innings when play was called off.

Ponting said: "It was a pretty good game of Test cricket actually. I was very excited by the end of day's play last night.

"I thought we had a real good contest on our hands today. We started the day really positively and aggressively and we got a few extra runs we thought we had needed.

"Then we gave it our best shot with the ball, but we didn't create enough opportunities today.

"We needed to take a couple of wickets with the new ball, we got that and then Sachin (Tendulkar) and (VVS) Laxman got together and we just couldn't break that partnership.

"We played good cricket, there's no doubt about that. We dominated this Test match pretty much from the second or third over on the first day.

"We've had our nose in front of the game and unfortunately we have not been quite good enough to win it. But it's a really good start to the series for us."

Australia await the decision of the third umpire, but did not create enough chances to win the game

India had slipped to 232 for seven in reply to Australia's first innings total of 430, but a partnership of 80 between Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh for the eighth wicket dented Australia's chances of victory.

Ponting admitted the partnership was the turning point in the game.

"In the course of this game, that's been one of the big turning points. Up until that moment we were a long way ahead in the game,” he said.

"Then Harbhajan and Zaheer got that partnership going and we just couldn't break it.

"The lower order put on runs and our lead went from being around 180-200 to 70 as it was.

"So, there's no doubt they took a bit of momentum from those partnerships. We summed things up in the second innings and got ourselves into a winning position, but unfortunately we didn't create enough chances."

Cameron White picked up the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar on his debut, but Ponting felt his team had missed the services of an experienced spinner.

"I thought Cameron White did an exceptional job today. I thought he bowled very well. It's a positive sign for us.

"But yes, a quality spinner might have made things a little different today.

"We've got a couple of days to recover from this game now and hope to play hard cricket in Mohali as well."