Mumbai Indians played like true champions: Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma was an ecstatic skipper as Mumbai Indians (MI) completed a brilliant turnaround in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 with a clinical 41-run win in the final against Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Rohit, who led from the front with the bat with a quick-fire half-century, said his team played like "true champions" and were the deserved winners.

Speaking after the game, Rohit, who was also named the Man of the Match, said: "We played like true champions. Mumbai Indians have shown great character. It was just a matter of putting everything on the field and I couldn't have asked for anything better. We've got guys in our team to do well. We always spoke about showing character."

Not many gave Mumbai a chance to make it past the league phase, let alone the final, when they lost five of their first six matches. Despite facing must-win situations quite a few times, Rohit Sharma's side did not let the pressure get to them and they went on to join Chennai and Kolkata Knight Riders as two-time IPL champions.

Rohit rated the title victory in 2015 as a sweeter one when compared to their win in 2013. "We won in 2013, but this is very sweet. We came from nowhere to win. Credit to all the boys for doing well. It was important that we got some momentum, it didn't happen at the start, but the turnaround was great."

Speaking about Mumbai's terrific comeback after a poor start to the tournament, Rohit said: "To be honest, there was no game-changing instance for us. We did not have any instance like that. we knew the moment we would lose, we would be out of the tournament and we treated every game as a final, as it was our last game,"

On MS Dhoni's decision to field first, Rohit said: "It was a good toss to lose. When MS said he would like to bowl first, I was little happy inside. It's a big game, you want to put runs on the board and put pressure on the opposition. That exactly what happened. In big games, you would like to do that that's my preference."

CSK skipper Dhoni, whose side has now experienced four losses in six IPL summit clashes, said Mumbai got away at the start of the innings and Chennai could not pull things back, which made the difference.

"I think they got too many on the board. First over was very good but the second wasn't and that was the instance when Mumbai Indians gained momentum. The kind of momentum they built from that point, it was difficult for us.

Chasing a mammoth 203, Chennai failed to get going in the chase, and Dhoni said Mumbai scored 10-15 runs more than what they expected, which added to the pressure. "We didn't start well with the bat as well. There was some uneven bounce as the game progressed. They got some extra 10-15 runs and that can put a lot of pressure while chasing. This was more of a team effort. There are a few cricketers in our team who have not played to their potential but we have done well as a team. Losing Brendon McCullum was a big blow, he would have been perfect at the start for us today."