Paul Collingwood celebrates after reaching his century on Day IV of the first Test at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday. (AFP)

Chennai: Virender Sehwag feels India can pull off a victory on Monday. The key will be to bat through the 90 overs, he said at the post-match press conference.

The following are excerpts

If he was disappointed at the end of the day

Yes, I am disappointed. I was playing the shots and the ball spun too much… I thought may be the umpire had said not out. But the decision went in England’s favour. Unfortunately he gave two close leg before decisions in England’s favour earlier and he had to be consistent… But I was also lucky they could not hold on to two possible catches when I was around 30.

If 387 will be daunting after a solid start

I was playing the shots. It was my normal batting and I was not going after any particular player. They were giving me width for cut and I was playing my shots. We are in a good position to win this game. We will go for a win tomorrow and hopefully we will achieve it.

On his positive approach

When I went there, I saw the wicket was good. The fast bowlers were giving me the width and the ball was coming nicely. I was playing the square cut and it kept going to the boundary. It is difficult to do the same against spinners if they bowl a tight line… But if you back yourself you can score on this wicket.

The Indian approach after England struggled to score when they batted

England players’ mindset was like that… It was not positive. I should also say that our bowlers were bowling really well, and therefore, they were playing like that. It appeared that they did not want to take any risk.

Perhaps, they didn’t want to lose a wicket in the first session fearing that they will lose the game itself. They had time and so they wanted to play till tea or after tea and then declare.

If it was fair to do it that way for England

It was fair from England’s point of view. If India were in a similar situation, we would have also batted till tea or thereabouts. But we would have also scored runs quickly like what we did against Australia in Mohali recently. We declared before tea when the score was 500 plus.

If he had a bit of chit chat with Flintoff

He was only praising me! (laughs)

On what India needs to do now

We need to bat for another 90 overs. If we bat 90 overs, we can score 250 or 260 runs. The wicket is still good to bat on. If you settle down, you can score runs.

Any batsman who will be crucial for India

Firstly, we need to bat for 90 overs. If you are thinking that we should finish the game early, it is difficult. But we have to bat for 90 overs… The required run rate is still around three runs an over.