Deccan Chargers top the IPL world by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	Deccan Chargers v Royal Challengers Bangalore
Player:	HH Gibbs, A Symonds, PP Ojha, RP Singh, HS Bansal, RE van der Merwe, A Kumble, R Vinay Kumar
Event:	Indian Premier League 2009

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DateLine: 24th May 2009

 

Bangalore Royal Challengers had one hand around the trophy, before they slipped and fell, and were never able to get up as Deccan Chargers of Hyderabad pulled off an incredible win to lift the trophy in the second edition of the Indian Premier League.

 

Challengers had it made when they restricted the Chargers to 143, way below what was par for the final, thanks to some fine bowling from skipper Anil Kumble and R Vinay Kumar. This would not be a cakewalk, but surely Bangalore had the batting to win it.

 

But that is what failed on Sunday night. Manish Pandey, who had scored a century and 48 in the last two games, and Jacques Kallis got stuck at the top of the innings and none of the other batsmen managed to get going.

 

Roelof van der Merwe did try to get the momentum going, but somehow not one batsman managed to get anywhere close. The South African clobbered three sixes but there was absolutely nothing from anyone else.

 

Despite the modest contributions, the asking rate was never really out of Bangalore’s reach. That got even worse when Rahul Dravid and Mark Boucher, batsmen who were expected to keep things going, fell to the unrated Harmeet Singh, which made a huge difference.

 

For Deccan, as always, Rudra Pratap Singh was impressive and Pragyan Ojha made some vital inroads, never allowing Bangalore to get off the ground. Andrew Symonds also chipped in with crucial breakthroughs.

 

In the Deccan innings, one would always be left wondering what Gilchrist was doing, charging down at Kumble, the third ball of the innings. Given that the change of tactics from Bangalore was evident, that they wouldn’t put their seamer in front of the Aussie, surely the Chargers skipper should also have had some plan in mind.

 

But he generally jumped out and was stumped, and T Suman followed soon after. Herschelle Gibbs and Andrew Symonds sought to get the innings back on track, especially capitalizing on a surprise fumble by Rahul Dravid at slip, as he grassed an easy one off Symonds. Despite that, and a couple of powerful hits from the batsmen, the pace of the innings was never really blinding.

 

Forty runs came off the next 5.2 overs before Symonds pulled one from Kumble, and the ball ricocheted off the thigh pad on to leg-stump, and the Bangalore skipper had his second major scalp.

 

Rohit Sharma seemed to go off the boil at the worst possible time for Deccan, and though he and Gibbs did try to create runs with some rapid running, the boundaries and sixes were rare and the scoring rate never galloped.

 

Once Sharma fell to Kumble, a fine catch from Pandey sorting him out, the inning more or less folded up, since all the big guns had left by then, and at the end of it all, Deccan were left well short of what they had anticipated.

 

Gibbs did get a half-century, but it wasn’t his best by a long shot. That, and Gilchrist’s mad rush, made sure that Deccan would have a fight at their hands.