Shreyas Iyer was an elated captain as Mumbai defeated Delhi by four wickets to clinch the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018 at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Saturday.

Mumbai didn’t lose a single game during the entire campaign. In fact, they were only challenged by Delhi in the summit clash.

"Amazing is the one word to finish off with, because the consistency which we have shown in the tournament has been amazing from the first match," Iyer said after the game. "Everybody in our team can bat and bowl, and it shows. We are a perfect team that is why we have won the tournament. Kudos to the players and support staff, they've been great throughout."

It was Mumbai’s first Vijay Hazare Trophy title win since 2006-07. They barely showed any nerves in the final even when they were 40 for 4 while chasing 178.

"We play as a last game, since it's the final. We decided yesterday that we'll play as a final and not as just another match. Right from the toss, it went with me and I gained momentum from there onwards. We were a little bit confused when we saw the wicket and couldn't analyse how it would play. The best chance was to bowl first and everything went really well until we came on to bat,” Iyer asserted.

"What sets us apart is that all of us gel together really well. Even off the field we stay together, cherish each other, play around with a little bit of tantrums and fun. This is what the team is made up of," he continued.

Coming into the final, Mumbai’s middle-order was rarely tested with the top-order batsmen doing the bulk of scoring. While Prithvi Shaw scored 356 runs from 5 matches, international stars such as Ajinkya Rahane (257 runs from 5 matches) and Iyer (373 runs from 6 innings) also did an exceptional job.

However, Mumbai needed a substantial contribution from the middle-order in the final. Despite facing 124 and 48 deliveries throughout the tournament, the duo of Siddhesh Lad and Aditya Tare lifted their game on the big stage and added 105 runs for the fifth wicket when Mumbai were reeling at 40 for 4. While Lad scored 48, Tare played a magnificent knock of 71 runs.

"The lower order batsmen, they hardly got a chance to bat and today when they got an opportunity to bat, they showed what they are made of," Iyer stated.

"They are the batsmen who have performed previously in pressure situations. Today we believed in them because we knew that they would finish off the game. Me and Ajinkya were chatting with one another that we believe they would win us the game. At the back of the mind we had faith in them. Tare has got good experience. He has played plenty of matches for Mumbai. He also led Mumbai so he is a good overall performer," he explained.

All the talk around Mumbai's campaign has surrounded on their batsmen, but the bowlers have done a fantastic job as well. While Dhawan Kulkarni and Tushar Deshpande bagged 18 and 15 wickets respectively, Shams Mulani also played a key role with 17 wickets in the tournament.

"Our bowling has improved really well. Since the batting has been really strong through the league phase, it was a bit of a worry for us on how our bowling unit would perform," Iyer said.

"They lived up to the expectations and we had planned how we would go up against such and such batsmen, and they really executed plans really well. Not only against Delhi but also against other teams. In few matches, I wasn't there, Ajinkya wasn't there, Dhawal was leading and we defended a good total (245) against Punjab. From there on we got the momentum, they've been really focused and motivated since the start of the league phase, and they wanted to do something good for the team," he elaborated.

Talking about the tricky chase, Iyer said they had no option but to attack their way out of trouble as Delhi were all over them in the initial phase.

"We had to play in that way as they had put an attacking field and if we bogged down, they would have come on top of us. You never know and we might have lost five-six wickets and the match would have been sealed (in Delhi’s favour). At the same time, our team were going at six runs per over, which was positive sign for the dressing room and the batsmen. They were on the backfoot and they were building pressure. We just knew that they (Tare and Lad ) had to play out this phase. Delhi did not have fifth bowler as sadly (Pawan) Negi got injured," he concluded.

(With inputs from Cricketnext)