Ahmedabad, Nov. 19: With eight wickets separating India from a humiliating defeat, coach Gary Kirsten on Thursday demanded application and determination from his wards to save the first Test against Sri Lanka on Friday.

Having conceded a 334-run first innings lead, India were 190/2 on the penultimate day — still trailing the visitors by 144 runs and will have to bat out of their skin on Friday to save the Test.

"The wicket is good for batting. We need to just apply ourselves and put on a nice concentrated effort on Friday," Kirsten said.

"We have batsmen with enough skills in our team to be able to do what we need to do tomorrow. It will require a lot of concentration and determined effort to save the game," he said.

"A score of 190/1 would have been better but it was a good batting effort. I am pleased with what the guys did there. Everyone made a contribution, which was great. Hopefully we can do more of the same on Friday," he added.

According to him, the Indians would have to bat without taking risks while not going too defensive either.

"It’s a mix and match. You don’t want to get into a hole playing too defensively. At the same time you don’t want to take too many risks."

"We have been batting at four an over. It’s a bit of a balancing act," he explained.

Praising Gautam Gambhir’s unbeaten 74, Kirsten said the left-hander was capable of saving the Test, like he had done against New Zealand earlier this year.

"We know what he’s capable of. He did a fantastic job in Napier early this year to save a Test match for us. The other players can also do the job," he said.

He also defended Virender Sehwag who played a typically aggressive and chancy knock of 51 before throwing away his wicket with an ugly heave. "We know the way Viru plays. We gracefully accept the benefit when he makes a big contribution, but there’s always a risk attached to the way he plays his cricket," the former South Africa opener said.

Kirsten said that the team should have scored 100 or 150 more runs in their first innings on such a good batting track. Having failed to do so, the home side needed to make up in the second essay on Friday, he said.

"When we look at this wicket, we probably were 100 or 150 runs short in the first innings. We got to make that up in the second innings," he said. — PTI