It was important for me to step up: Rohit

After leading by example with a match-winning knock, Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma said the 19-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore was "by far the best game" for the defending champions in IPL-7.

- Scorecard

"Absolutely, by far the best game. This is what MI is all about, we took some brilliant catches, we bowled well, batted well and fielded well," Rohit said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

Rohit led from the front with a sparkling half-century before Mumbai Indians rallied to comfortably defeat Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Talking about the dew factor, Rohit said, "Wankhede always has some dew but the bowlers did very well. They kept things calm. (Pawan) Suyal came back very well and things slowed down for RCB. We kept taking wickets."

And as far as his unbeaten 35-ball 59 was concerned, the Man of the Match said, "It was important for me to step up and I'm glad I played an important knock. We're keeping our heads up.

"We need to be positive. The next game against CSK is also very important."

RCB captain Virat Kohli said they could have batted smarter.

"It was very gettable, we could have batted smarter, one more partnership was needed. It was a dream start, we could not capitalise on it," Kohli said referring to the opening stand of 53 in just over five overs betwen Chris Gayle and Parthiv Patel.

Asked about the ugly on-field spat between his player Mitchell Starc and MI's Kieron Pollard, Kohli said, "Every team plays hard and these sort of things happen. If we had applied ourselves we could have crossed the line."

The star batsman is hopeful of a turnaround.

"We are not losing hope, we need to win at least five out of the next seven. We are good side and will look to make smarter decisions in the future."