New Delhi: Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma lauded his bowlers and the whole team for their amazing win over Rising Pune Supergiant in the Indian Premier League final on Sunday night.
Mumbai defended 129 in the summit clash, the lowest total by a team batting first in an IPL final, to lift their record third title in Hyderabad. Opting to bat, Mumbai were left reeling at 79/7 in the 15th over, but Krunal Pandya's 47 off 38 deliveries helped them reach 129/8.
During the chase, Pune kept wickets at hand but took it deep as they found it tough in the final five overs. That's when fast bowlersJasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga and Mitchell Johnson stepped up their game and restricted Pune to 128/6 in 20 overs.
Johnson needed 11 runs to defend in the final over and was smacked for a boundary off the first ball by Manoj Tiwary. But the Australian legend fought back with wickets of Tiwary and Smith off successive deliveries and gave away just five runs in the next three balls to guide his team to a famous victory at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium.
"It was a great game of cricket. I'm sure the spectators enjoyed it. To be able to defend a score like this was a brilliant effort, I couldn't ask for more. Whenever you're defending a total like that, the first thing you'e to do is believe.
"I told the boys if we could do it against KKR (105) there was no way we couldn't do it here. There was assistance from the pitch too so it was a matter of exploiting the conditions," Rohit said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
For Mumbai it was Krunal who starred with the bat while Johnson (3/26) and Bumrah (2/26) were outstanding with the ball specially in the death overs. Rohit said that he gave his bowlers full freedom when the match got close towards the end.
"When three overs were left, I had confidence in the bowlers. They've always done the job wherever they've played. It was about giving freedom to them because they're the masters and they've done it before. I just told them to do whatever they want and set the field accordingly," the relieved MI skipper said.
