Batting first, the duo of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant scored crucial half-centuries to revive the Delhi Capitals’ innings.

Rohit Sharma led the run chase for MI with a scintillating knock of 68 (51). Ishan Kishan stayed unbeaten at 33 runs from 19 deliveries as they won by five wickets in the penultimate over.

Rohit addressed the media at the post-match press conference. The Mumbai Indians skipper shared his thoughts on his strategies while going out to bat, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan’s performance in the season and his experience playing this season.

You generally take time to settle in and then you play the aerial shots. However, today you went after Ashwin right in the first over. What was the strategy around that?

Rohit: “No, 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 him. He is a quality bowler, no doubt about it, so that was the thought and then it came off pretty well. When you’re chasing a target like that, you want to get off to a good start and make sure there is no pressure towards the backend. We wanted to make sure that we try to capitalise on the first 3-4 overs, and then we can take our time and bat the conditions.”

It has been a splendid year for Surya and Ishan. A few words on their performance, and how has their impact been on the team?

Rohit: “Surya and Ishan have been superb with the bat. We saw the results on the ground. They played with a lot of freedom and that is something which is required when you have players like that, who are very talented in shot-making and you want to capitalise as much as you can. So, it was important for us to give them that freedom. Along with myself, the team management, the coach and the owners as well give them real confidence to go out there and enjoy themselves.”

Going into this match, what were the plans against the opening batters, Stoinis and Dhawan, considering they had a really good game against SRH?

Rohit: “We knew that they are key batters for them and we wanted to bowl our key bowlers at them. Getting early wickets in a high pressure game is always nice. You got the best new ball bowler in your squad, so why not just go with that? Boulty throughout the season has been brilliant for us, so was Bumrah. They are the ones who kept us in the game most of the time. Not to forget the contribution from the other bowlers as well. James Pattinson came in and did the job for us. Coulter-Nile towards the backend was brilliant. Rahul Chahar, Krunal Pandya, both with the ball and bat were brilliant through the season.”

Was the team at any stage in the final match worried about the result?

Rohit: “When you’re playing a big game like that, you can’t think too far ahead about the results. As a team, you just want to follow the process. Keep doing the right things on the ground. Make sure that you keep that pressure on the opposition. We got the wicket right at the first ball, and then we got a couple more after that as well. We knew they are a good batting team and wanted to keep that pressure going all through. That was the thought behind it and the execution was perfect today from all the bowlers.”

2020 has been the year of the unexpected. However, Mumbai Indians continued to win the IPL, you continued to be the Champions. You’ve sort of broken a trend. A word on that, and how was it playing this year in the COVID year?

Rohit: “Firstly, I’m just very happy to be on the ground. IPL did a great job of making it happen, along with the management who made sure that everyone is safe first and then the tournament happens. The safety of the players was taken care of, which was very important. So, hats off to the whole IPL management and the BCCI officials as well. I would like to congratulate all the franchises as well, to make sure that there were no hiccups in terms of bio-bubble which was created. I know these are tough times, but, you have got to be disciplined, and that’s exactly what all the franchises did. All the franchises were very disciplined to make sure that IPL happens smoothly. To go and achieve that final result, I hope we put a lot of smiles back home and around the world as well. These were tough times, a lot of people were going through a lot of tough times as well. So, I hope this championship that we’ve won is something to cheer for the people back home as well.”