The final of IPL Season 2 here yesterday yet again showed the virtue of someone staying put and anchoring the inning. After the departure of Deccan’s skipper Adam Gilchrist in the very first over surprisingly bowled by Challenger’s captain Anil Kumble, scoring runs became tough for a seemingly mentally subdued side. But the other opener Herschelle Gibbs (53 off 48 balls, 3x4, 1x6) batted through the inning, keeping one end intact.

Playing first and after the Gilchrist’s early departure Herschelle Gibbs took the command for Deccan Chargers and batted through the innings. But there was no acceleration forthcoming from the other end. Andrew Symonds (33 of 21 balls, 4x4, 1x6) briefly flourished, but Anil Kumble cut his innings short. Rohit Sharma (24 off 23 balls, 1x4, 1x6) too did his bit, but Deccans' 143 for 6 seemed barely adequate. Challengers’ skipper Anil Kumble was the most successful bowler ended with magic figures 4-0-16-4 and rightly declared man-of-the-match, though his team lost the final.

Defending a mere 143 runs, Adam Gilchrist’s men provided the much needed spark to swing their side’s fortunes in an exceptional manner. Some electric fieldwork by Andrew Symonds, Rohit Sharma and Herschelle Gibbs, excellent left-arm spin from Pragyan Ojha and aggressive captaincy by Gilchrist worked wonders.

Royal Challengers never really developed any momentum, losing wickets at regular intervals. Opener Jacques Kallis was first to go, bowled by R.P. Singh for 16 in the fourth over. Manish Pandey, Bangalore's hero in the last two matches, was out for 4 edging a turning Ojha ball to wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist in the seventh over.

Roelof van der Merwe was the top-scorer for Bangalore with 32, but was dismissed in the ninth over after he was beaten by the flight of a ball by Ojha and was stumped by Gilchrist. Rahul Dravid added 9 runs before Harmeet Singh bowled him while attempting to sweep.

Ross Taylor was next, caught in the deep by Venugopal Rao off Symonds, who also accounted for Virat Kohli (7) who he had stumped by Gilchrist. Mark Boucher on 5 then attempted to clear the covers with a cut shot but was caught by Gibbs. Praveen Kumar handed a lolly to R.P. Singh  off Ojha to take a high catch, while Vinay Kumar was the last wicket to fall, spectacularly caught by a diving Harmeet Singh to spark Deccan celebrations.

Gilchrist praised Andrew Symonds, who took two wickets in two balls to undermine Bangalore's run chase. Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha also bowled with impressive variation for Chargers, taking 3 wickets for just 28 runs as Challengers were restricted to 137-9 in reply.

Kumble, who was named man-of-the-match after taking 4-16 in four overs was of the view that dismissal of Ross Taylor and Virat Kohli by Symonds was a big blow to Challengers’ chase. After finishing bottom in the inaugural tournament last year, Deccan exceeded all expectations. The bulls of the Chargers dug out charge on to the field. They are all charged up by this charge to the top spot from being at the bottom last year.

For the second year in a row, the Indian Premier League was won by a team that had a fairytale run to the title. 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.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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