Dhoni plays down defeat in warm-up tie

London:

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni refused to read too much into the team's nine-run defeat on Monday in World Twenty20 warm-up match against New Zealand and said the side has back-up plans up its sleeves.

Chasing 171, Dhoni's team seemed cruising to a victory before New Zealand's discipline bowling at death put paid to defending champion India's hopes.

Dhoni, however, preferred to look at the positives and said he was not unduly worried about the loss.

"Obviously we had some targets. A couple of batsmen got really good starts. Of course during the game we lost wickets at crucial times but we wanted to try a few things, specially in bowling and all of that worked for us," Dhoni explained.

"Quite disappointed with the defeat but we have back-up plans and so I'm not really worried," he said.

"Besides, we missed quite a few key players," Dhoni added.

Dhoni was particularly happy about Ishant Sharma who returned to form with a four-wicket haul today.

"I think it would give him great deal of confidence. He is a bowler who should be bowling at the start and also in the end. In between he came and got us those crucial wickets," Dhoni said.

Laid low by food poisoning, Yuvraj Singh didn't play today, while Virender Sehwag also skipped the match due to fitness reasons.

Dhoni assured they would all regain fitness before India's next warm-up match against Pakistan on Wednesday.

"A couple of guys had food poisoning but I'm sure everyone will be fine before our next warm-up game," he added. Meanwhile, Kiwi captain Daniel Vettori was elated after the win which he attributed to team effort.

"It was a very good performance. Rohit (Sharma) and (Suresh) Raina were destructive and to come back from there, I must say I'm reasonably happy.

"I think we managed our innings well," he added.