My best ODI knock, says elated Sehwag

“This is definitely my best one-day innings. Before this I had made 130 against New Zealand, but today’s innings was special for me as this is my highest one-day score as well,” Sehwag said in the post-match press conference.

Sehwag was not ready take full credit for Indian victory, terming it as the outcome of an outstanding team effort. “The victory was not made possible only because of my knock. There were knocks by Dhoni, Sachin, Kohli and Jadeja, so it was a team effort,” he said.

Sehwag lauded the effort of Indian bowlers in the death overs. “Zaheer and Ashish (Nehra) were very good in the last five overs or so. Zaheer bowled nearly 25 yorkers and Nehra also bowled that many yorkers, choking the Lankans’ score in the late overs. Harbhajan too was good as he got the important wicket of Dilshan.”

Sehwag said India did not start their innings with 400 runs in their mind. “We knew the wicket was flat and ground was also small. So we knew there will be quite a few runs, and when me and Sachin were batting we were looking at 350. But the partnership between me and Dhoni changed the whole approach as we reached 300 in some 35 overs, so at that stage we thought 400 was possible,” he said. The only sore point for man-of-the-match Sehwag was that he hurt his knee while fielding. “I had banged my knee on the field, so I had to leave the ground. But physio Nitin Patel is attending to me and hopefully I will be fit for the second one-dayer in Nagpur,” the Delhi batsman said.

The opener termed the run-out of Mahela Jayawardene, and the dismissals of Sangakkara and Dilshan as the turning points of the match. “Both Sanga and Dilshan were batting superbly. They exploited the conditions well, and especially Dilshan was good. But even then we did not think the match will go so close. Bhajji got rid of Dilshan and Sanga too did not last the distance. However, we got their wickets at the right time and the run out of Jayawardene, a good piece of fielding from Virat, brought us back into the match,” he said.