HITMAN LAUDS TEAM’S SURGICAL STRIKES-Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma ascribes title win to bowlers’ telling blows

New Zealand pacer Trent Boult snared the dangerous Marcus Stoinis and Ajinkya Rahane while off-spinner Jayant Yadav dismissed the in-form Shikhar Dhawan to leave Delhi Capitals reeling at 22 for three, early setbacks from which the team couldn’t quite recover.

“We got a wicket on the first ball and we got a couple more after that. We just wanted to keep the pressure, the execution was perfect from all the bowlers,” Rohit said at the post-match press conference.

Set a target of 157, Mumbai sailed home in 18.4 overs and with five wickets in hand. Rohit’s classy 68 off 51 balls was the highlight of the chase.

“We knew Stoinis and Dhawan are Delhi’s key batters, so we wanted to bowl our key bowlers at them, getting early wickets was the key, we wanted to take early wickets, when you have the best new ball bowler in your squad, why not go with that” he said.

Rohit applauded each and every bowler for his contribution in the team’s success throughout the tournament. Boult (25) and Jasprit Bumrah (27) were at their lethal best the entire season.

“Boult has been fantastic for us this season and so has Bumrah. They are the ones who kept us in the game throughout. (James) Pattinson, (Nathan) Coulter-Nile, (Rahul) Chahar, and Krunal Pandya also did their job.”

The captain, who missed a few games due to a hamstring injury, led the chase with a master-class.

Asked if it was his strategy to attack off-spinner R Ashwin, Rohit said, “There was no strategy as such. I just wanted to be positive in my thought process.” “Ashwin is their key bowler and I just wanted to put pressure on their key bowler. He is a quality bowler, it came off.

“When you are chasing a target like that, you want to get off to a good start, you want to make sure there is no pressure at the back end, we just wanted to capitalise on the first three-four overs,” he explained. The organisers pulled off a successful league amid a raging COVID-19 pandemic and MI skipper was pleased with the way it went off.

“Firstly we are very happy to be on the ground, everyone did a good job to get the tournament going, the safety of players was taken care of,” he signed off.