Hamilton: Virender Sehwag has undoubtedly become a thorn in the flesh of bowlers in world cricket with New Zealand pace spearhead Chris Martin admitting that he was relieved to see the back of the India opener in the morning session of the second day's play in the first Test here on Thursday.

Sehwag could only add two runs to his overnight score of 22 as James Franklin caught him short of the crease with direct hit while running for injudicious second run.

"Most of the Indian players respect a decent ball, apart from Sehwag. It was good to see his back," said Martin, who was the pick of the Kiwi bowlers with figures of two for 53.

Martin, who made a comeback to the New Zealand Test squad, expressed satisfaction with his performance but said the day could have ended on a better note for the hosts had Daniel Flynn hold on to the difficult chance of Sachin Tendulkar (70 not out) off the bowling off Daniel Vettori when the master blaster was at the individual score of 13.

"Test cricket is pretty big for me. I am enjoying it so far. It is good to be back.

"If you bowl a good line and a good length, batsmen respect it. To go at three an over on that wicket was a good achievement. Perhaps, if we would have held our catches, the day would have been more even," he said.

Asked about the the controversy over his selection in the team, Martin said he was not hassled by the stir and was determined to prove his detractors wrong.

"I might get the odd word from friends and families, but my main focus was to not let the talk in the media leading to the Test. I managed to deal with this kind of stuff pretty easily. It has helped me relax and get into a groove," the 34-year-old medium pacer said.

"With that old man time catching up on you, you struggle a little bit sometimes. But in this Test cricket I think I have managed to regain the perception of what people thought I had lost. To prove a few doubters wrong is always on my list, and also to prove it to myself as well," he added.

Martin said he was never low on confidence and lauded his captain Vettori for showing faith on him.

"Once you are in the team and are hanging out with guys you have played with, the confidence it gives you is huge. I think Dan (Vettori) has given me the ball at good times in the match to let me have a good crack at it. To have actually given that pay back today at few stages was good," he said.

Martin said there was a bit of moisture in the pitch early in the morning which helped the seamers.

"Each morning you turn up, there is always a bit of moisture. There is a little bit of something in the air. If we can at least pull back a couple of wickets, we can get ourselves right back in the game again."