Our shot-selection wasn't good - Sehwag

Virender Sehwag, as economical with words as with his technique, is not looking for any excuses after his side lost 15 wickets in 124.3 overs and is still 63 runs behind Sri Lanka's first-innings total, with a full day's play to go. He said they were aware that their shot selection wasn't good, that they were now hoping for rain to go with the best efforts of VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni.

"Fantastic that we are getting a result even after losing one day's play," Sehwag said. "But it is bad for the Indian side. We are on the losing side unless VVS Laxman can play [well] tomorrow, and we are hopeful that after lunch or before tea, rain will come and the match gets washed out as a draw."

Asked about his shot to get out in the first innings, an attempted cut to a delivery that would have otherwise been called wide, with three fielders deep in the off side, Sehwag said: "That's my scoring shot. If you look at the 7000 runs that I have scored, more than 3000 runs have come through the cut shot. In coming matches too, I will play the same shot. Sometimes you get out, sometimes you score runs. Almost every time, I score runs with the cut shot."

But aren't India in the position because several batsmen played ill-advised shots? "Everybody is aware of that, but you can't control certain things," Sehwag said. "Sometimes you play that shot and you get away with that, sometimes you get out. That's Test cricket where everybody has played enough matches. They are experienced. It happens in cricket."

Sehwag conceded the pitch hadn't deteriorated enough to justify the scores and that it was "still a good track to bat on" which made him confident that India could still save the Test. "If you look at the last Test match that we played against South Africa, MS and VVS scored hundred-plus and remained not out and batted really well," he said. "So they can do that. Laxman and Dravid did that against Australia in 2001, so we have the hope. Still we have one more pair of batsmen, they will go tomorrow and try and their best."