The
Indian Premier League Season 2 final was one match that had all the ingredients of a thrilling match. After 37 days of intense battle, the final match was won by
Deccan Chargers Hyderabad defeating
Royal Challengers Bangalore.
If it was Team Jaipur that went from underdogs to champs last year, this time it was the turn of a squad that could do nothing right last year, Team Hyderabad, to pull off an amazing turnaround.
Hyderabad rose from rock bottom, shaken and stirred, to pull off a sensational victory in the final here at the Wanderers, thus adding another chapter to the sweet irony of last-year's wooden spoon holders.
If 2008's number seven and eight teams were destined to make the final, it was perhaps only apt that the number eight won the title. Knight Riders may well derive some hope for next year.
The IPL ended in spectacular fashion as one IT city barely held off the other in a match that went down to the wire. Defending a mere 143 runs, Adam Gilchrist's men provided the much needed spark to swing their side's fortunes in an exceptional manner.
Both the finalists were lying at the bottom of the table last year in the IPL edition which Rajasthan Royals had won under the captainship of Shane Warne. But this time, Rajasthan failed to make it even to the semi finals. A total of 143 was never going to be easy. But Deccan Chargers who were indeed charged up with the ball struck at crucial moments and restricted the RCB to 137 runs, thus winning the final by 6 runs. RP Singh, the purple cap holder dismissed Jacques Kallis for 15 runs.
Newly discovered young sensation Manish Pandey (4) and Roelof van der Merwe (32) were dismissed by Pragyan Ojha in quick successions. Later even Praveen Kumar fell to Ojha taking his tally to 3 wickets. RP Singh finished with figures of 1-16.
Harmeet Singh and Symonds also struck twice each and provided the Chargers wickets at regular intervals thus breaking the backbone of Bangalore's batting.
After being put into bat after RCB won the toss, the Chargers started off badly loosing their captain and in form batsman Adam Gilchrist off the second ball of the innings bowled by Anil Kumble. Every time Kumble came to bowl he struck and finished with an impressive figure of 4 for 16 off four overs. It was a fifty run partnership between Herschelle Gibbs and Rohit Sharma that steadied the Chargers innings after Symonds departed. It was the half century of Gibbs that enabled Chargers to put up a modest total for Bangalore to chase.
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