New Delhi, May 8: Despite losing lost a nail-biter to Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils’ skipper Virender Sehwag presented a picture of confidence at the post-match press conference on Thursday.

"We lost, but I think we played pretty well throughout the match. Shikhar Dhawan played brilliantly which was expected of him, while Gautam Gambhir batted as per our plan," Sehwag said.

The Delhi opener said he expected his side to win, but the last over by Shoaib Malik proved fatal. "We had backed ourselves to win, but the last over went bad. They needed 15 runs to win, and we gave away 11 in the first two balls."

Super Kings’ Albie Morkel, who smashed Sehwag for three consecutive sixes, echoed him. "Definitely, the first two balls of the last over turned the game for us.

"But the start given by (Stephen) Fleming and (Sivaramakrishnan) Vidyut also made the difference. It was satisfying to see us winning again."

He added that they had not made any strategies to negotiate the home team bowlers. "We knew we would be chasing close to nine an over before the game, so we did not make any plans against any of their bowlers. We treated every bowler the same way."

The Daredevils’ skipper complimented Muttiah Muralitharan for keeping a tight line. "Their spinner bowled really well, not letting our batsmen to unsettle him. Only singles came in his over…. but I was fine with the 180-plus target we managed to set. It was a good score."

Asked whether they missed a trick in dropping all-rounder Rajat Bhatia, Sehwag said the track was flat and they wanted to boost their batting. "We bowled well in the last match, so we thought we could play Manoj Tewari instead of Bhatia. We needed a regular batsman in our side."

Sehwag hinted that they could play tweaker Amit Mishra in the next game to boost the bowling.