Wellington: Having managed to register their first victory in what has turned out to be a disastrous New Zealand tour, a relieved Indian captain Saurav Ganguly on Wednesday said his top order batsmen still needed to work on "some areas" to score runs on seamer-friendly tracks.

"Although we played well today, there are some areas in our batting that we need to work on," Ganguly said after his struggling team fashioned a thrilling two-wicket victor in the fifth One-dayer against New Zealand.

Ganguly, who himself has struggled with the bat right through the Test and One-day series, said bowling first was a key factor in his team's confidence-boosting win.

"Bowling first was the key as it has been throughout the series. The ball did a bit in the first hour and we could put them under pressure," he said. The Indian captain said that his team should have restricted the hosts to a smaller total after leaving them tottering at 3 for 3 at one stage.

"We should have restricted them. Brendon McCullam and Andre Adams played a cameo for them. But I thought 160 was a chaseable total batting second."

Ganguly singled out Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan for special praise saying they had delivered when the team needed it. "Yuvraj is a great talent and has started delivering. Batting at number six is not easy."

"It's also good to see Zaheer score runs under pressure. He is a great asset for the side," he said.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming sought to find the "positives" from their first defeat in the series saying it was important for him to know how the team reacted to pressure.

"It was a day when we put ourselves under pressure. It gave us an idea on some of the things we are not happy with. There were some good knocks by the lower order batsmen, but the team has to get sharper," Fleming said.

"Three days ago (when the series was not decided), I would not have batted first on winning the toss on this wicket," he admitted. Fleming said he chose to bat first in conditions favouring the bowlers to test his batsmen but his team fell short by 30- 40 runs.

"I thought 180-200 would have been a good enough total on this track. We could have got to 200 easily but we made mistakes throughout.... In a way it was good to expose our batsmen."

The New Zealand skipper was also disappointed with his bowlers saying they conceded too many extras. "We conceded as many as 23 extras and those many sundries made the difference in the end."

Fleming said with the series already decided, his team perhaps lacked the edge in this game. "Guys are probably looking too far ahead. The pressure of the World Cup squad is over, the series is won.

"But we would try to maintain the edge in the next two games," he said.

Zaheer Khan, named man-of-the-match for his fine all-round performance, said for the first time in the series he was satisfied with his performance. Zaheer took three wickets for 30 before scoring an unbeaten career-best 34 to guide India past the 169- run target for its first victory on the tour.

"Everyone in the team is delighted we have finally tasted a win on this tour," said Zaheer. "We would now do our best to win the remaining two One-dayers."

Terming his performance with the bat and ball as extremely satisfying, Zaheer said "It was an absolutely fabulous day. Initially, there was a lot of movement in the wicket. The ball was moving off the wicket which normally does here in New Zealand.

"When I came in to bat, I just wanted to hang around with Yuvraj who played a brilliant knock." Zaheer said he was not nervous when Yuvraj was dismissed with nine runs still required for victory.

"When Srinath came in to bat, we decided we would just pick singles. We said to each other 'we're not going to do anything silly'."

Extras:
Plucky Yuvraj, lucky Khan save India's blushes