India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was pleased with how his players handled their early nerves to secure a six-wicket victory over New Zealand in the triangular one-day series for the Compaq Cup in Colombo.

New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori won the toss in a match the Black Caps had to win to stay in the tournament, but his batsmen failed in conditions which have suited the team batting first in recent games.

Left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra and occasional left-arm spinner Yuvraj Singh claimed three wickets apiece as the New Zealanders were bowled out for a meagre 155 runs inside 47 overs.

India too lost an early wicket, but Sachin Tendulkar steadied nerves with a brisk 46, while Dhoni (35 not out) and Suresh Raina (45 not out) put on an unbroken 72-run stand for the fifth wicket to complete a successful chase with just under 10 overs to spare.

India were playing their first international match in over two months, but Dhoni reckons the bowlers' fine performances helped ease the tension.

"It's fair to say we were a little nervous," Dhoni said.

"If you are not tense on the day of the game, more often than not it suggests you are not really prepared for the game.

"But with the kind of start the bowlers gave us, we knew we were up for it."

The toss has proved crucial at the R Premadasa Stadium with the last 11 results prior to this game favouring the team batting first.

But Dhoni said the toss had proved insignificant due to the quality of the pitch.

"When we lost the toss we did not expect the wicket to behave the way it did," Dhoni said.

"Right from the start it looked more like a second-innings wicket with the ball not coming onto the bat and the spinners getting considerable turn.

"We knew the wicket could not get much worse than that and the plan was to get New Zealand out as cheaply as possible.

"Nehra gave us early breakthroughs and Yuvraj picked up crucial wickets.

"Sachin gave us a good start with the bat and chasing such a low total you only needed a couple of partnerships to see you through."

Tendulkar put on 60 runs for the second wicket with Rahul Dravid, but both batsmen perished in the space of eight deliveries. Vettori then dismissed Yuvraj cheaply as India slipped to 84 for four.

"It was a bit of a challenge when Vettori was bowling," Dhoni admitted.

"But they only had one specialist spinner.

"If they had another spinner, someone who could send down a few overs like Yuvraj did, it would have put us under pressure.

"It was not easy to score off the seamers, but they were easier to handle in these conditions."

India have the chance to top the International Cricket Council's one-day team rankings if they win their next game against Sri Lanka and the final here, but Dhoni insists his team are not looking that far ahead yet.

"Honestly, we aren't really thinking about it," he said.

"Rankings and ratings will take care of themselves once you perform consistently on the field.

"That's what we are trying to do in this tournament."

The defeat capped a poor tour for New Zealand and skipper Vettori blamed his batsmen for the loss.

"When you win the toss here, you want to put on a competitive total, more so since this is a bit of a tricky wicket," he said.

"Perhaps if we had got to the 200-run mark we would have been a lot more competitive."

Martin Guptill (22), Grant Elliott (22), Jacob Oram (24), Neil Broom (21) and Vettori (25) all got starts but could not turn it to their advantage.

"The wicket got easier once you played yourself in as I found out myself," Vettori added.

"I think all the guys who got out in those 20s were pretty disappointed.

"I think we saw how to do it again from Dhoni and Raina, but all the way through we just put ourselves under pressure with the bat.

"It wasn't a bad fightback from us and we put them under some pressure so we've got to take some good things out of the bowling."