I must improve my batting, says Sehwag

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Stand-in Indian captain Virender Sehwag lamented his own batting performance on Tuesday after his side slumped to their second successive defeat in the One-day International tri-series against Sri Lanka here.

Sehwag was caught at the third-man boundary trying an upper-cut off Lasith Malinga in the second ball of India's chase.

"Five times I have been dismissed caught at third man or at the slips. I am looking at my performance and I have to improve for the side to win matches," said Sehwag, who has scored just 30 runs from the three matches he has played in the tournament.

"I think I have to leave a couple of balls early in the innings and then take the bowlers later on," he added.

India failed with the bat once again and gave away too many runs in the last ten overs as they slipped down to the last position in the table. The team got off to a poor start as they lost their top three batsman within 12 overs.

"We didn't bowl well in the final ten overs, and we didn't bat well, the way Sachin and Gambhir played in the beginning, I thought we could get a good start but we lost three wickets early. We didn't bat well and we didn't bowl well. We missed Dhoni in this game, if we play to our potential it will be easier for us."

Virat Kohli and Irfan Pathan tried their best to get India back in the game but the 290-run target proved to be too much for the current World champions as they were bowled out in the 46th over and fell 51 runs short of Sri Lanka's 289 for six.

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jaywardene praised his bowlers for a stellar performance, though he still has a lot to think about, especially the fielding as the islanders dropped three easy catches.

"We are getting better and better, we played smart cricket, we kept wickets in hand and put up a good score. However, we are still making some mistakes, hope we don't make them in the bigger games. Our bowlers were absolutely brilliant upfront. With the two new balls, the ball is doing more in these conditions," Jaywardene said.