Mumbai Indians’ fifth IPL title was a result of hard work and superb planning, captain Rohit Sharma said after the victory in Dubai on Tuesday.

“Pretty happy with how things went the entire season for us. We said at the start we want to make winning a habit, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more from the guys,” Rohit said.

“We were right on the money from ball one and never looked back. A lot of credit goes to people behind the scenes as well.

“I try to do my job by giving my boys confidence. If you look at our batting, we’ve been rotating the middle order between Hardik, Krunal and Polly (Kieron Pollard).

“In the bowling department too, we try what works with us... Rahul Chahar was unfortunate to miss the final, we needed Jayant Yadav tactically. When you want to change your XI to make it better, you should be able to do that...”

Rohit lauded Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav for their contributions right through the tournament.

“Ishan is someone whose judgement you cannot cloud. He has to do what he wants to do on the field. Surya, the kind of form he was in, I should have sacrificed my wicket today. He played incredible shots.”

Rohit also didn’t forget to thank the fans. “Fans make the game special for us. We missed playing at the Wankhede.”

Delhi Capitals captain Shreyas credited coach Ricky Ponting for their making the final in this IPL. “I’ve mentioned it several times, Ricky is probably the best I’ve worked with,” Iyer said. “The amount of freedom he gives us is amazing.”