Virender Sehwag was as brisk and straight with his words at an end-of-day press conference as he was with his bat out in the middle on the second day at Mohali. Eager to get back to the middle tomorrow, he said his - and the team's - aim will be to score fast, and score big:

With Virender Sehwag it's the bat that does the most talking © Getty Images Enlarge

On the team's strategy tomorrow
My aim is to play full day tomorrow, which will put the team in a good position. Already we lost an opportunity to win a match against Australia last season in Chennai owing to bad weather. So our priority will be to get back the field early and capitalise on today's work.

On his slowing-down after tea
The Melbourne episode, in the 2003-04 series Down Under, taught me a lesson, where I got out on 195 and the team got all out for 366. I didn't want that to happen this time, and that's why I reined myself in after the tea interval.

On the wicket
The wicket is good and at the end of the day bowlers were getting purchase.

On whether he has found a permanent opening partner in Gautam Gambhir now that they had recorded their second century-plus partnership
We will have to wait and see and give him [Gambhir] more time to prove himself further, as in the past, too, I have had century partnerships with Aakash Chopra and Sanjay Bangar.

On whether the Pakistan bowling was weak
Their bowling is not weak. It's just that they didn't bowl in the right spots.