Parties, travelling during IPL took a toll on fitness: Dhoni

India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni refused to blame the IPL for the teams Twenty20 World Cup debacle but conceded that aftermatch parties and hectic travelling during the glitzy league did take a toll on the players fitness Most of the players were fit and fresh Players also need to be smart not only about cricket but about other things going around in the IPL We have to respect your body and give some time for it to recover because there is more to it than playing matches Attending parties and travelling takes a toll Dhoni said after Indias fivewicket loss against Sri Lanka yesterday that knocked them out of the event The defeat was also Indias third successive in the Super Eights stage a disappointing low for the inaugural champions Dhoni said the sixweeklong IPL was in itself not responsible for the debacle Our performance does not have anything to do with IPL said Dhoni I wouldnt say the IPL was a set back for our preparation In fact it has helped us in match preparation for the World Cup It has thrown up players like Suresh Raina Rohit Sharma Ravindra Jadeja Pragyan Ohja and Amit Mishra It has groomed a lot of talent Dhoni rejected criticism of the team and said he is least affected by what is said about it As Far as the sloganeering goes I am not bothered about that We try and do our best We play for our country and we are more respectful to our country than those who do these sort of things They can do whatever they want to fumed Dhoni u00a0He said Indian had done their best although the results have not been too good Whenever we go out there we try to do well But you wont do well every time We tried our best and did whatever we could have but we still ended up being on the losing side said a despondent Dhoni The wicketkeeperbatsman commended the Sri Lankans for their allround show yesterday They batted really well in the end overs Also they bowled very well after the 13th over and made it difficult for us to score They were looking to bowl yorkers and to keep the ball outside off stump You cant do much when someone bowls perfect yorkers Me and Raina were out there in the middle It was really tough But we were looking to slog everything thing he said Dhoni said he did not regret batting first yesterday I dont really regret batting first If we had chased 150 batting second it would not have been less than 10 runs an over which is tough Defending 163 was difficult We fell short by a few runs Had we scored 180 or more the target would have been 160170 and that would have been a good target to defend said Dhoni Dhoni said this was the best Twenty20 side that India could field We are not performing to our potential I cant say why But at the end of the day this is the best T20 side we have It gets tough without players like Virender Sehwag Zaheer Khan he suffered a blow on the right thumb and Praveen Kumar he said Asked if the Indians vulnerability to the rising ball proved to be their downfall Dhoni said I cant comment on that as you really cant stretch a tournament for too long It required a bit of adaptation as we have played in similar conditions quite often I cant say the wicket was such and we didnt perform well He said Indian batsmen had technical problem when it came to playing the short ball Most of us have the problem of playing short pitched balls So it is not just the youngsters who had problems We cant neglect it any more But we dont have bowlers who consistently at 14550 kph and most of wickets in India dont have that kind of bounce he said But we should also remember we are good players of spin So we shouldnt be ashamed that we couldnt play shortpitch bowling We have to play even against shortpitch but we cant be ducking and leaving all the time in Twenty20 he added On whether he was feeling the pressure of captaincy Dhoni said You are always under pressure when you play for India It is part and parcel of the game I have not played any game till now when there is no pressure Notwithstanding the debacle in the World Cup Dhoni said he had faith in his side I have a side with lot of potential to do well wherever we play We had two or three poor tournaments But other than that we have been consistent said Dhoni India won both their preliminary Group C matches but lost their Super Eights matches to Australia 49 runs West Indies 914 runs and Sri Lanka 5 wickets