Captain Kumar Sangakkara was relieved to weigh in with a match-winning innings as Sri Lanka defeated India in the first of two Twenty20 internationals in Nagpur.

Openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Tillakaratne Dilshan contributed 43 for the opening wicket before Sangakkara hammered 78 off just 37 deliveries, helping his side reach 215 for five.

Gautam Gambhir then led India's chase with an equally fluent 55, but the rest of the line-up crumbled as the hosts followed up a shoddy performance in the field with a poor batting display to lose by 29 runs.

"What really set us up was the two openers batting for six overs even if they didn't get a flying start," Sangakkara said.

"They really applied themselves and got those 40-odd runs and we could launch our innings from there.

"I've been in good form, but I've been getting out cheaply because I've never really applied myself.

"I thought it was about time I really did something to inspire the side."

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Sri Lanka, who lost the Test series 2-0, now lead the Twenty20 series 1-0, but Sangakkara warned his players against complacency.

"It really doesn't matter if we look good on paper. What matters is how we deliver," Sangakkara said.

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"I thought the fielding was outstanding, we were excellent in the first 16 overs and I thought we could have been a little more ruthless in the final four overs and finished the game off.

"Overall, everyone played really hard and they showed a lot of hunger to win.

"But we have to start from scratch again although we will take some momentum and confidence from this.

"We have to break our game down and approach the next Twenty20 with the same enthusiasm and focus.

"We have got to learn and keep learning, keep our fielding standards up and our batting standards going and make sure we support each other."

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni blamed the defeat - India's fourth Twenty20 loss in a row - on a poor mindset.

"I don't think we were in the groove for a Twenty20 game and too often we treat it as a warm-up for the one-dayers to follow.

"It's probably the reason for our defeats in these games.

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"We needed a bit of luck to chase down that kind of total. It would have been a pretty remarkable effort if we had done it.

"We got the perfect start, but we lost too many wickets and never had the time to settle.

"The catching is a bit of concern. We are not a brilliant fielding side, but we don't (usually) drop too many catches.

"That also hurt us also to some extent."