Chips were clearly down with New Zealand inflicting the follow-on but India's stand-in captain Virender Sehwag insists neither he nor any of his teammates ever feared losing the second Test to the Kiwis.
Chips were clearly down with New Zealand inflicting the follow-on but India's stand-in captain Virender Sehwag insists neither he nor any of his teammates ever feared losing the second Test to the Kiwis.
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Sehwag said the Indian batting order, which failed to live up to the expectations in the first innings, was too good to falter twic and the players were pretty much sure of saving the match despite conceding a huge 314 runs first innings lead to the hosts.
"We were confident of saving the match. We were very sure that we can bat through two and a half days. We have a capable batting line-up, they can bat two and a half days. Laxman, Dravid, Gautam, Tendulkar they can bat for two days," Sehwag said.
"We have done that a couple of times. We did that against Australia in 2001 series, we did that in Adelaide in 2004 when we won the game. No one thought we would lose the game. That's why we were enjoying ourselves playing football, volleyball during the game," he added.
Sehwag said the series wins at home and abroad in the recent months have given the team the confidence to come out of any difficult situation.
"In the last seven months, we have won every single Test series. We are getting used to this, we are playing good cricket and we are backing ourselves. It doesn't matter what situation we are in, we just play our game. We are not bothered about the conditions and wicket. We are just in our own space. We can do what we want to do," Sehwag said.
He was effusive in his praise for Gautam Gambhir, who led India's fightback with a marathon 137, and described the left-hander as the "Second Wall" of Indian cricket.
"I think Gautam played his lifetime innings, because hardly have players played for almost 11 hours. He is the one who saved the game for us. I think we can call him the second wall of the Indian cricket team and this time comes from North," Sehwag said.
Asked about the original Dravid 'The Wall', Sehwag quipped, "We still have him, no one can replace him."
He was in a mood of introspection about India's first innings when the visitors, replying to New Zealand's mammoth 619 for nine declared, folded for 305.
"When the opposition makes 600, you feel that it is a very good batting wicket and you can play shots. Sometimes you can be dismissed because of over-confidence. Some of our batsmen who were set and had got fifty got out. There wasn't any single batsman who was dismissed to a good ball, everyone fell to a bad ball," Sehwag said.
Incidentally, Sehwag himself could not make a mark with the bat in the match but the opener said he was not disappointed with his form.
"I am not disappointed. Because sometimes you get runs, sometimes you don't. I am pretty happy. I am a team man and we saved the Test match for India," said Sehwag, who led in absence of an injured Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Sehwag said Dhoni would undergo a fitness test on Wednesday to know his availability for the third Test starting in Wellington on Friday.
"I don't know. I don't know yet but he (Dhoni) will give his fitness Test day after," Sehwag said.
He agreed that the McLean Park track was too difficult to bowl a side out but still refused to say it was a bad wicket for Test cricket.
"It was a flat track, nothing for the bowlers except for the bounce. But when the wicket has bounce, it's good for batsmen also. They can play their shots, that's why you have seen four or five hundreds in this game.
"It was a good Test pitch because there is a lot of bounce on this track. Not much spin and seam movement, but lot of bounce. If we get a helpful pitch at Wellington, it will suit us because our bowlers are in very good form," he said.
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