Kiwi skipper Stephen Fleming has promised to open some wounds for India from the 2-5 defeat in the one-day series recently played in New Zealand.
While Fleming has resorted to mind games, Virender Sehwag has launched a direct attack on the Kiwis warning them of a revenge game on Friday.
"I am ready and prepared to take revenge here," he said after his team went through a fielding session at the Centurion Park in Pretoria.
Sehwag was the only Indian batsman to get into three-figures against New Zealand in that one-day series and expressed his desire to get another big hundred on a flat batting beauty at Centurion, the venue where India decimated the Pakistanis in the league stage.
"Centurion is India's favourite ground," he said adding that barring the bounce and pace the grounds in South Africa have been much the same as those in India.
After a string of dismal scores in the current World Cup, Sehwag scored his maiden half-century of the tournament and was involved in the best opening stand for any team in this tournament of 153 with Sachin Tendulkar. He scored 66 in 76 deliveries.
Sehwag said that throughout his innings against Sri Lanka, Tendulkar kept telling him to play with determination instead of batting in the same flow.
"He told me that I play in one flow when the runs keep coming but when the runs don't come easy I should stay at the wicket for long and play a determined innings."
He refused to believe that he was guilty of throwing his wicket away and said he always believed in playing his shots and if there was a ball to be hit he would hit it.
"If I have scored 20 runs of an over and there is still a ball that I can hit, I will hit it."
"If you see my innings against Sri Lanka, I started with a four and six. I am not going to change my style of batting. That is the way I have got my runs and that is the way I will continue. Yes our gameplan is not to lose a wicket in the first 15 overs and then go for runs after that."
"When a bowler is bowling well you have to give him some respect but other than that I always play my shots."
He said the backing he got from his coach (John Wright), skipper (Sourav Ganguly) and other senior members of the team helped him get through the phase where his confidence was low.
Sehwag scored two hundreds (108 and 112) against New Zealand in the one-day series when none of the other batsmen could cross 25.
Sehwag played down the nature of wickets in New Zealand and said that wickets did not affect his game too much. He illustrated his statement by saying that he was playing here on flat tracks but had yet to get a hundred.
With his 66 against Sri Lanka, Sehwag ended his string of poor scores of 4,6,4,36,24,23,21,3 since his hundred in New Zealand.
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