Napier, March 30: As India dished out a superb display of temperament to save the second Test and maintain their 1-0 lead over New Zealand, stand-in captain Virender Sehwag picked out the heroes who were involved in the rescue act.

Marathon man Gautam Gambhir was high on the honours list. "I think Gautam played the innings of his lifetime, there are very few who have played for almost 11 hours. He is the only one who saved the game for us," Sehwag said after the match on Monday.

He had a new sobriquet for his long-standing opening partner and Delhi teammate. "I think we can call him the second wall of Indian cricket team (Karnataka’s Rahul Dravid being the original Wall). This one comes from the North," Sehwag said to laughter all around.

In the same breath, he added, the first wall is "still with us, no one can replace him."

Sehwag said batting for long hours was not a worry when the follow-on was enforced. "We did that a couple of times, I think we did that against Australia in 1999 or 2000 series, we did that in Adelaide in 2004 and won the game. So we were very sure that we can bat through two-and-a-half days. We have a capable batting line-up," he said.

"We were very strong when we knew we had a couple of players who could bat long. Laxman, Dravid, Gambhir, Tendulkar all can bat for two days. The dressing-room atmosphere was fantastic, no one ever thought we would lose the game. That’s why we were enjoying ourselves. We were playing football, volleyball, during the game and after the game and before the game. We were very sure," he added.

The flamboyant opener did not regret having got out cheaply going for runs. "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," he said.

Talking about the pitch, Sehwag said "It was a flat track, which had nothing for the bowlers except bounce.

"But when the wicket has bounce, it’s good for batsmen too. They can play their shots, that’s why you have seen four or five hundreds in this game."

Is captain M.S. Dhoni fit to play the next Test? Viru first said "I don’t think so," before quickly correcting himself with, "I don’t know, sorry. He will take a fitness test the day after."