IPL 6: Oppositions should fear coming to Mumbai: Rohit

Their quotfortressquot was almost breached by a spirited Kings XI Punjab and relieved to have avoided the debacle by a narrow margin Mumbai Indian skipper Rohit Sharma said his team would now focus on making its home ground a den where oppositions would be scared to play in the IPL quotHome games are very important because you don39t know what you are going to get outside You have to win as many as possible when you play at home and we are trying to make full use of thatquot Sharma said after the fourrun win over Punjab at the Wankhede Stadium last night Rohit Sharma during his 79run knock Pic Atul Kamble quotWe want to make it our fortress We want to make it our den and people should fear coming to Mumbai and playingquot he added Rohit played a captain39s knock of unbeaten 79 off just 39 balls but the young Mumbai Indians skipper admitted that he was nervous when Punjab almost chased down their total of 174 quotI wasn39t worried but I was nervous because as a captain you would be obviously But I just wanted to hold my nerves I didn39t want to make any mistakes on the field But it worked out pretty wellquotu00a0 quotI rotated the bowlers well which was the key At the end I am happy that we wonquot Sharma said Sharma said the dew factor came into play in the second innings and the bowlers found it difficult with the wet ball The dew comes a lot over here It is not easy Spinners find it difficult to grip the ball but our spinners bowled well Dew makes a lot of difference but we still defended the total of 174 Whether you win by 4 runs or 50 runs a win is a winquot he said Kings XI Punjab came close to winning the match despite losing early wickets but captain David Hussey felt the Mumbai spinners took the match away from them quotI have got great faith in our lower order They have been saving the team most of the season A little bit disappointing that not an in batsman was there like David Miller or myselfquot Sharma said quotBut full credit goes to Mumbai Indians spinners Their two spinners really changed the gamequot he said David Hussey Pic Atul Kamble Offspinner Harbhajan Singh picked up three wickets for just 14 runs in his four overs while leftarm spinner Pragyan Ojha picked two for 22 off his three overs Hussey had bowled the last over off which Sharma had scored 27 runs and the Australian said that probably cost them the match quotI wasn39t going to bowl Yeah it is one of those things PC Piyush Chawla has bowled in the death overs in the last few years and has done particularly well But tonight it wasn39t coming out for him So I took the wrong one and sadly went for 27 probably cost us the gamequot Hussey said Sharma felt it was a gamble they took in the last over quotThat really was a gamble because they didn39t have much option They could have gone either with Piyush Chawla or David Hussey David Hussey considering he can get those yorkers he thought he is the best man I don39t know what was the ideaquot Sharma said Hussey praised pacers Praveen Kumar and Parvinder Awana for their effort with the ball but said they would have to shrug off the disappointment of this loss when they play their next match against twotime IPL champions Chennai Super Kings quotWe played very well in the Kings XI team sadly we are on the wrong side of the result tonight I think we can take a lot of positives out of here tonight Our bowling upfront was sensational to mequot he said quotPraveen Kumar Awana were outstanding It will be disappointing with the result but we just have to dust ourselves off when we go to Chennai in a couple of day39s timequot Sharma added Mumbai seamer Dhawal Kulkarni conceded 44 runs in his four overs but the skipper defended him and said it was not easy to bowl with the dew quotAnybody can have one bad game See how good he bowled in the last game It is not easy to bowl with the dew You have got to give some time to him This was his second game and he still got two wickets He came and bowled pretty alright I would sayquot he said Sharma also lavished praises on the big West Indian Kieron Pollard for his brilliant effort to catch the ball at the ropes to get rid off Shaun Marsh quotHe Pollard has been magnificent for us He has taken a couple of great catches this year He always does it for us He is brilliant on the field quotThat is what we look for from each and everybody to contribute on the field We want to be the best fielding team in this competitionquot Sharma said