"The effort on the field was not good enough," said an angry Azharuddin. "Our problem area is the fielding and unless that changes we are not going to win Test matches. I don't know when we will wake up and realise that there is a problem with our fielding."

When asked what could be done to rectify it, Azharuddin said, if he knew, he wouldn't be sitting and complaining. India dropped seven catches in the two New Zealand innings and his counterpart Stephen Fleming agreed the home side's superior catching tilted the balance in its favour.

"When you are defending you can't afford to give away easy runs and drop catches. And that's exactly what we did," Azharuddin said. "We were in a good position at stumps on the fourth day. But we didn't bowl well at all today."

Fleming described the Test as the"most mentally demanding" in his 38-match career and said the post-lunch session on the fourth day was the "most pivotal" in his side's push for a result.

"Both teams had equal chances in the Test and I think at the end we won more sessions than them," Fleming said. Fleming said beating a top side like India was a sweet feeling. "In the past we have beaten Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe at home. It is good to win a Test against a team like India," Fleming added.

"When it came to the crunch I think we handled the pressure better than them. I think McMillan and Cairns responded to the challenge remarkably."

New Zealand has replaced Nathan Astle with left-hander Roger Twose for the final third Test starting in Hamilton on January two. Astle suffered a broken hand during this match.