Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team chasing 171, seemed cruising to a victory before New Zealand's discipline bowling at death put paid to defending
ICC World Twenty20 England 2009 world champion India's hopes.
Mahendra Singh 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.
A succession of cameos, led by Ross Taylor's feisty 41, helped New Zealand set India an imposing target of 171 in their warm-up match at Lord's. India in reply scored 161/6 with Vettori taking three wickets for the Kiwis.
Dhoni was particularly happy about
Ishant Sharma who returned to form with a four-wicket haul.
"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.
Posted by Shashank Mittal | Views 394 | 
