Early wickets in high-pressure game is always nice: Rohit Sharma

We knew they (DC openers Shikhar Dhawan and Marcus Stoinis) are the key batters and we wanted our best bowlers to go at them. Getting early wickets in high-pressure is always nice.

Hyderabad: Mumbai Indians made no contest of the IPL final as they cruised past Delhi Capitals by five wickets to clinch their record-extending fifth title. Rohit Sharma, who played a captain’s knock with a fine 68, was delighted at the team’s superlative performance.

Speaking after the victory, he said their bowlers did a fine job taking early wickets to restrict the Delhi Capitals for a low total. “We knew they (DC openers Shikhar Dhawan and Marcus Stoinis) are the key batters and we wanted our best bowlers to go at them. Getting early wickets in high-pressure is always nice. We have the best new-ball bowler in the team and with Bumrah, we want to use them against their top order. All other bowlers were great in the season,” he said.

Chasing the total, Rohit was aggressive in his nature going after Ravichandran Ashwin in the first over itself. Speaking about his plan, he revealed, “I just want to be positive. Ashwin is their key bowler and wanted to put him under pressure. He was a quality bowler no doubt. When you are chasing a target like that, you want to get off to a good start as you don’t want any pressure at the backend. It came off well.”

He also had a word of praise for the Board of Control for Cricket in India and IPL management for conducting the tournament in such tough times. “We are very happy to be on the ground. Hats-off to the BCCI and IPL management for conducting the tournament. The franchises are also very disciplined and they made sure that there were no hiccups in the bio-bubble,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, Capitals’ captain Shreyas Iyer said they had to score big runs to make a match out of it after losing early wickets. “When you enter final, you have to make sure that you start well. We didn’t get that. So it was important that we score runs and also save wickets. We reached a decent total in powerplay. We were in a decent position till the 15^th over. But it went downhill from there on.”

Iyer (65) and Rishabh Pant (56) added 96 runs for the fourth wicket to help their side to 156/7. Speaking about the partnership he said “We were just backing our abilities. If we get our targeted bowler we wanted to go after him. We also spoke of rotating strike.”

When asked about batting first after winning the toss, he backed his decision. “In such big matches, we need to back our strength when we batted first in the last match (against Sunrisers Hyderabad) and got a good total on the board. We had good bowlers to defend the total. Our bowlers were our strength. It was fatigue that crept in and they lost it in powerplay. I don’t regret choosing to bat first,” he revealed.

He also lauded Kagiso Rabada, who took the Purple Cap with 30 wickets. “They have been outstanding throughout. KG (Rabada) was outstanding. He is getting the Purple Cap and setting example for all other bowlers. Ashwin has got a great mind. He comes and executes what he wants. I am happy with the overall performance. We have been lacking in getting good starts in batting. We lost pretty early wickets and we have leaked a lot of runs in powerplay especially in the second part of the season. We want to work on these areas and come back stronger next year,” he concluded.