'Mumbai players clicking at the right time'

Mumbai: Mumbai Indians coach Lalchand Rajput was obviously a very happy man. CNN-IBN's Roma Khanna caught up with him to talk about Mumbai's winning momentum.

Roma Khanna: You must be very pleased with the way the team has performed with the first home win.

Lalchand Rajput: Yes. It was a pleasing thing to happen because Delhi are one of the best teams and were on a roll. I think it was very good to see our team gel very well. We carried the momentum from the last game. I'm sure this momentum will be carried forward.

Roma Khanna: Getting those early wickets — Delhi's top three has done particularly well — do you think that put them on the back foot?

Lalchand Rajput: We discussed a lot on that, because Delhi's lower order hasn't been tested much as their frontline batsmen have done the job. Since the lower order hadn't had a chance to bat, if we can take early wickets and put pressure on the lower order batsmen, that would help and that's exactly what happened.

We bowled in the right areas, we got the breakthroughs, and once Gautam (Gambhir) and Shikhar Dhawan were out, that put a lot of pressure on them. In Twenty20 cricket, it's all pressure and the team which handles the pressure well wins.

Roma Khanna: Towards the end of the Mumbai innings, do you think the way Shaun Pollock batted also helped?

Lalchand Rajput: At one stage when we started off, Sanath (Jayasuriya) started off really well, we were 50-odd in the first six overs. But again we lost wickets and the momentum came down. But at one stage we were looking at setting a target of 190 but we had to be content with 160, that too because of Pollock.

Overall, people are clicking at the right time. Bravo clicked in the previous game, Pollock came good in this one and so did Sanath. In the bowling, there are a few youngsters who are doing very well. Ashish Nehra bowled well today, while Rohan Raje did a fantastic job under pressure.