Skipper Rohit Sharma stepped up to the occasion with a brilliant half-century as Mumbai Indians (MI) bagged their fifth title by defeating Delhi Capitals in the IPL 2020 final at Dubai. Chasing a target of 157, MI were propelled to a strong start by Rohit and Quinton de Kock. While Rohit slammed a 51-ball 68, de Kock scored 20 off 12 deliveries.
MI were on top from the first over with a 45-run partnership between openers Sharma and Quinton de Kock. Suryakumar Yadav (19) and Ishan Kishan (33*) made valuable contributions in the middle as the Mumbai batting unit chased the target down with 8 balls to spare.
To etch their name into record books, MI successfully defended their title and became the only team after Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to do so. The franchise had earlier won the title in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019.
Following their emphatic title victory, skipper Rohit Sharma revealed that they planned to capitalise on the first three-four overs and he wanted to put pressure on Ravichandran Ashwin, DC's key bowler.
"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," said Rohit during the post-match press conference.
Talking about MI's bowling performance, Trent Boult rose to the occasion by scalping three wickets. Nathan Coulter-Nile also assisted him by dismissing two batsmen -- Rishabh Pant and Axar Patel.
"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 bowler in your squad, why not go with that? Boult has been fantastic for us this season and so has Bumrah," said Rohit on their bowling exploits.
Rohit further heaped praise on Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav. Both the uncapped stars have delivered phenomenal performances for MI this season. Ishan scored 516 runs while Surya added 480 runs to his name.
"Surya and Kishan have been superb with the bat, we saw the results on the ground, they played with a lot of freedom, they are very talented in shot-making, it was important for us to give them freedom, the owners also gave them real confidence to go out there and express themselves," said the MI skipper.
