Rohit Sharma, the most successful player in the history of IPL with five titles to his name, celebrated Mumbai Indians’ thrilling victory over Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2019 final in a grand style. Rohit, who led MI to their fourth IPL trophy – the most by any team in the tournament, was also at the centre stage of the victory celebrations.

Hours after the nail-biting final, which saw Mumbai edge past MS Dhoni’s CSK by just 1 run, MI skipper Rohit Sharma showed his other side by rapping a famous number from Ranveer Singh’s Bollywood movie ‘Gully Boy’.

There was no stopping Rohit as he continued to rap “Asli Hitman se milaye Hindustan ko…” even as an overjoyed Yuvraj Singh tried to keep pace with him while Rohit’s wife Ritika and rest of the Mumbai Indians’ players cheered on.

The actual song in the movie was ‘Asli hip-hop se milaye Hindustan ko’ but one cannot blame Rohit for creating his own version out of it.

🎤 "Asli Hitman se milaaye Hindustan ko!" 🎶#OneFamily #Believe #CricketMeriJaan #MumbaiIndians @ImRo45 @YUVSTRONG12 pic.twitter.com/DmSQwzz1HB

— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) May 13, 2019

Rohit’s happiness was understandable. He didn’t have the best of IPL as a batsman, but as a leader he was beyond excellent. And excellent was his team, which never lost hope, not even after putting just 149 on board in the IPL final, not even when Watson got three lives, not even when the equation came down to 9 runs off 6 balls because of a terrible goof-up behind the stumps by Quinton de Kock.

“It is special. Not just Samaira but you (addressing his wife, Ritika) also. Yes, (winning in front of) Samaira because this is her first IPL and she came for most of the games. I’m very happy,” Rohit said replying to Ritika, who asked him how he felt about winning the fourth title in front of Samaira in a video interview for IPLT20.com.

In the end, Lasith Malinga produced an incredible last over to take MI over the line. He trapped Shardul Thakur leg before in the last ball after Watson (80 off 59) got run out two balls earlier. Before that Jasprit Bumrah kept Mumbai in the hunt with his tidy overs and two wickets, getting rid of Dwayne Bravo and Ambati Rayudu. The premier Indian pacer produced 13 dot balls in his testing overs. Young leg-spinner Rahul Chahar also played a key role in the middle overs as he too created pressure by bowling 13 dot balls. He finished with figures of 1 for 14.

Earlier, Mumbai ended up with a below-par total despite Kieron Pollard’s unbeaten 41 off 25 balls. Deepak Chahar (3/26) was impressive once again and so was fellow pacer Shardul Thakur (2/37). The spinners, Harbhajan Singh (0/27) and Imran Tahir (2/23), too played a crucial role in limiting Mumbai Indians.

(With agency inputs)

First Published: May 13, 2019 15:08 IST