Indian cricket skipper Sourav Ganguly on Sunday refused to give any excuse for the team's 35-run defeat in the second cricket one-day international against New Zealand in Napier and said the team had a bad day out on the field.

"It was a good wicket to bat on and there can be no excuse. A good partnership could have seen us through but it was generally a bad day out on the field," Ganguly said, after India's second successive loss in as many matches.

Ganguly said the dismissal of opening batsman Virender Sehwag turned the match around for the hosts.

"We had the game in our hand when Sehwag was batting but his dismissal changed the course of the match," he said.

The Indian skipper also conceded that the team's fielding left much to be desired.

"We had done some hard work to improve our fielding in the recent months but the performance was poor on the field today. Definitely we need to improve on that," Ganguly said.

Sehwag was named 'Man of the Match' after scoring an uncharacteristic patient century.

"The situation required that I stay there, and also the track was good to bat on. But it would have been nice had the team won," Sehwag said.

Home captain Stephen Fleming was a delighted man after the win gave his team a 2-0 lead in the seven-match series.

"Players are enjoying their chances... and things are going to a plan. The World Cup is around and it is nice to be winning," Fleming said.

"We had just one good partnership from the top order but we knew 250 was a challenging total and we needed to bowl and field well," he added.