Viru hopeful of hosts’ fightback

Feb. 8: It took S. Badrinath, 10 years of hard toil on the domestic scene, 22 hundreds and stages in life where he had to fight self-doubt before arriving on the Test scene. Having earned his right to Test cricket the hard way, the Tamil Nadu batsman was not going to let the chance go by easily. The situation was shaky, the bowling close to hostile but Badri does what he does best — hang in.
“It was exciting and it did not take time to realise that it was going to be tough. They were quality fast bowlers but once I started middling the ball, it felt a lot better,” said Badri. Vice-captain Virender Sehwag noted that Badri had fought hard in his first Test innings and kept telling him to enjoy his cricket.
Badri agreed that there was pressure on him when he walked out to bat and all the years of waiting in the fringes were running through his mind. “My experience told me to concentrate on the job ahead. I was digesting the fact that I was playing Test cricket and I was training my mind on what to do. Yes there was pressure but I did not let that affect my game,” said Badri.
A lot will depend on how far M. Vijay and Sachin Tendulkar can carry their partnership and also Badri. Sehwag was hopeful of a fightback. “We will try hard and hopefully save the match. Sachin is there and Vijay is also playing really well. We have done it in the past. Sachin is vastly experienced. Hopefully he will get us out of trouble,” said Sehwag.