Tactically, Kevin Pietersen didn't do anything wrong and it was India's superior skill which tilted the Chennai Test in their favour, according to England coach Peter Moores.
Struggling to come to terms with the fact that his wards lost a Test match despite dominating it for the major part, Moores said the skills of players like Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh proved decisive.
"It was a hard day to watch," Moores said.
"Obviously the lads have put everything into it and to come out with nothing at the end of five hard days is tough, but it was a great game of Test match cricket," he was quoted as saying by 'Sky Sports'.
"Sehwag came out and changed the momentum of the game completely and then today they played with great skill and took themselves home.
"I don't think it's tactics; it's skill. To rotate spinners on a difficult surface like a Test match pitch in India takes a lot of skill," he said.
While England didn't bat too bad either, Moores felt Indians scored more freely and that made a huge impact on the outcome of the Test.
"We saw that from Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood they rotated the ball well. Where the Indians have balanced themselves well is one rotating the strike, but also scoring boundaries and putting bowlers under pressure. First innings we found that quite hard to work."
Moores defended left-arm spinner Monty Panesar who made very little impact in the second innings.
"In some ways I feel for Monty in that our preparation was compromised quite a lot," he said.
"He hasn't played competitive cricket for four months, so that was tough, and as a spinner it's hard. As the game went on he was getting back into some sort of rhythm."
He also felt that both Panesar and Graeme Swann would need some time to adjust to the conditions.
"Swanny's played in the one-dayers, but again the longer format is hard and I think both will have learnt how skillful Indian batters are once they get in."
Describing the mood in the dressing room as one of despondence, Moores said, "Our dressing room is flat at the moment, but we got stuck in and competed very hard and we can celebrate the performances of Strauss - two hundreds in a game in India is a fantastic effort - and I thought the way Paul Collingwood played second innings would set up a fantastic platform to go for the win.
"I thought Freddie bowled beautifully this morning but we'll hope Mohali has a little bit more for our seamers and I think the spinners will also enjoy a little bit of bounce to bring them into the game."
