Deccan Chargers completed an extraordinary journey from being at the bottom of the table last year to win the second edition of the Indian Premier League, defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore by six runs in a exciting final at the New Wanderers on Sunday.

There was no lack of excitement and heartbreak in the title clash as the 37-day, 59 match tournament ended with a fitting finale between last year’s bottom two sides.

Royal Challengers captain Anil Kumble used his guile and experience to claim four wickets and restrict the formidable Chargers to 143 after winning the toss. Herschelle Gibbs top-scored for Chargers with an unbeaten 53 while Andrew Symonds contributed 33. 

The Challengers, who were coming on the back of five successive wins, were never on the top of the chase and lost wickets at regular intervals. They lost five wickets in the last six overs and finished at 137-9.

Andrew Symonds (3-18), Pragyan Ojha (3-28) and Harmeet Singh (2-23) all chipped in with the ball.

Ross Taylor (27) held the Bangalore innings together at a difficult time, but two successive blows by Symonds tilted the scales in the Chargers favour. Challengers needed 45 off 36 balls at that stage.

Taylor holed out to Venugopal Rao in the deep and Virat Kohli was out to a brilliant piece of stumping by Gilchrist. Harmeet Singh, in the next over took out Mark Boucher, who gave a straight catch to Gibbs at point.

Robin Uthappa (17) kept the team in the hunt and Challengers needed 27 off the last two overs. Uthappa and Vinay Kumar took 12 runs off the first five balls of Ryan Harris, before the latter was out to a brilliant catch by Harmeet at long leg.

RP Singh kept his nerve in the last over and Uthappa could hit only one four off the fifth ball, but it was all over for Chargers by then.

Earlier, Challengers’ in-form opening pair of Manish Pandey (4) and Jacques Kallis (16) got out without making much on the scoreboard.

Kallis hit Ryan Harris for two fours before dragging a RP Singh delivery onto the stumps.

Van der Merwe (32) meant business straightway, hitting Harris for two sixes but Ojha, who has been in impressive form through out the tournament dismissed Pandey and Merwe.

Taylor and Dravid looked to build a partnership by adding 22 runs, but Dravid went for a paddle shot and was bowled by Harmeet Singh.

Earlier, Challengers were off to a great start as Kumble, opening the attack, bowled for a duck the dangerous Andrew Gilchrist, who had single-handedly crushed Delhi Daredevils in the semifinals.

Suman fell to a good running catch by Pandey off Vinay Kumar in the fourth over. Symonds was dropped on five by Rahul Dravid in the slips, but could not do much and became Kumble’s second victim.

Gibbs smashed three boundaries and two sixes in 48 balls while Symonds faced 21 balls and cracked four boundaries and a six. The pair shared a third wicket stand of 40 runs to bring the Chargers back on track.

Kumble removed Rohit Sharma for 24 and Venugopal Rao for a duck in the 17th over.

Tags: Adam Gilchrist, Anil Kumble, Deccan Vs Bangalore, Grand IPL Final, IPL 2, IPL 2009 News, IPL Finals, IPL Scores, IPL South Africa, IPL Updates, Jacques Kallis, Merwe, Royal Challengers Vs Deccan Chargers

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Rohit Sharma was the toast of Deccan Chargers’ victory on Wednesday with a hat-trick after playing a critical innings of 38 off 36 balls in his team’s 19-run win over Mumbai Indians.

The man-of-the-match said he was happy with his performance with the ball and said that he always had confidence in his bowling.

“I am happy that I scored and later took that hat-trick. I always had my confidence in my bowling and I am happy it came out good today,” he said. I had been bowling at international level but I haven’t been that regular with it,” he has been quoted as saying in the official IPL T20 website on Thursday.

Skipper of Deccan Chargers Adam Gilchrist said that the early strikes by R P Singh and fine bowling by T Suman and Rohit Sharma won the match for them.

“Harris took a brilliant catch off Sanath Jayasuriya and Sachin Tendulkar falling off the very next ball put pressure on the Mumbai Indians. The impact was huge. Later Rohit and Suman bowled so well that we didn’t feel the absence of Ojha. He will be fine for the next game,” said the former Aussie stumper.

Meanwhile, R P Singh was ecstatic about the early wickets of the two explosive batsmen – Tendulkar and Jayasuriya.

“I am just sticking to my basics. I bowled in the right areas and my outswingers came out good. The South African pitches support bowlers like me who can swing the ball,” he said.

Tags: Deccan Chargers Vs Mumbai Indians, Hyderabad Deccan Chargers, Hyderabad Vs Mumbai, IPL 2009, IPL 2009 News, IPL Scores, IPL South Africa, IPL Updates, Rohit Sharma

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Riding high after their crushing victory over Kings XI Punjab, defending champions Rajasthan Royals will be gunning for revenge against Bangalore Royal Challengers in IPL on Thursday.

In their first meeting, Royal Challengers defeated Rajasthan Royals by a huge 75-run margin.

Since then, both teams have followed the same course – losing matches at the start before bouncing back in the tournament.

Rajasthan Royals have nine points, one more than Bangalore Royal Challengers who have eight.

With a depleted side, Rajasthan Royals lost matches at the start and looked like a pale shadow of the formidable team that won the opening IPL championship last year.

Royal Challengers are on a roll with three wins on a trot. A new skipper in Anil Kumble has moulded the team into a winning bunch.

Their last victory against Mumbai Indians saw Jacques Kallis and Robin Uthappa return to form.

Royal Challengers have the advantage of many South Africans in their ranks. In the last match, all their oversesas players — Kallis, Mark Boucher, Preez and Roelof van der Merwe – were South Africans which helped them to assess the local conditions better than any other team.

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Tumbling off the top slot after three successive defeats, Adam Gilchrist’s Deccan Chargers will hope to arrest the free-fall when they take on revenge-thirsty Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.

Under Gilchrist, the Chargers looked clearly the most high-flying outfit this year with four wins in a row, including a 12-run victory against the Sachin Tendulkar-led Mumbai Indians in the first leg that placed them right at the top of the table in the early stage.

Then came the twist in the tale and subsequently nothing would go right for the Hyderabad outfit which crashed to one defeat after another to move down the ladder.

Defeats against Delhi Daredevils, Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings saw them surrender pole position and slip to fourth place and Gilchrist would go into Wednesday’s match believing he knows what it takes to beat the Mumbai side.

The job, however, would not be easy since Tendulkar himself is not really amused by the yo-yo form of his side.

The Mumbai Indians have not gathered any momentum in the tournament yet and for them, every win has invariably been followed by a defeat, pushing the side to sixth place with three wins from seven outings.

Of the three defeats so far, resting heavy on Tendulkar’s shoulder would be the most recent once that came against Royal Challengers Bangalore, not really the mightiest of sides in the tournament.

Mumbai’s sharp looking bowling unit overnight lost its zing and sting against Jacques Kallis and Robin Uthappa — both of whom were hitherto off-colour — and the result was a thumping nine-wicket defeat with 11 balls to spare.

They, however, would go into Wednesday’s match with a point to prove. In case the desire to bounce back is not enough motivation, Mumbai Indians would look forward to settle score with the rivals who won their first round battle in Durban.

At the same time, an interesting sideshow of tomorrow’s match would pit Twenty20 cricket’s two most exciting opening pairs against each other.

As was on display throughout the tournament, veterans Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya thrive in each other’s company and have spoilt the figures of many a bowler while setting the tone for the match.

Mumbai would expect JP Duminy to maintain his good run in the middle and seek those lusty blows from Abhishek Nayar, while Deccans would hope Rohit Sharma to sizzle against some of his Ranji teammates in the Mumbai side.

Tags: Adam Gilchrist, Deccan Chargers Vs Mumbai Indians, Hyderabad Vs Mumbai, IPL 2009, IPL Scores, IPL South Africa, IPL Updates, Sachin Tendulkar

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The much-criticised ’strategy breaks’ in the Indian Premier League could be revised for the semifinal and final matches, IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi hinted on Tuesday.

Modi said the idea was yet to be ratified by the IPL technical committee but possibly the 15-minute strategy break would be reduced to 10 minutes.

He said instead of having one seven-and-a-half-minute interruption after the 10 over, it would be two two-and-a-half minute breaks in an innings, the second of which would be decided by the fielding side.

“It’s not frozen yet but we are looking at two aspects. There will be two two-and-a-half-minutes breaks per innings, so the break in all during an innings will be of five minutes.”

“The first two-and-a-half-minute break will be just after the powerplay (6 overs) and the second to be taken by the fielding side at any time,” Modi said.

The IPL commissioner said strategy breaks were a part of every sport and there is nothing new about it.

“It happens in every sport, there is a strategy break and everything. But 7.5 minutes may look like a bit longer, so we are seeing how we can reduce it down to five minutes,” Modi told.

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A superb unbroken stand between Jacques Kallis and Robin Uthappa led Bangalore Royal Challengers to a nine-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians in an Indian Premier League clash on Sunday.

After winning the toss at the Wanderers and opting to bat, Mumbai recovered from a poor start to reach 149-4 and in reply, Bangalore made 150-1 with 11 balls to spare.

Kallis got off to a cracking start after fellow opener Wassim Jaffer had fallen early on and although he slowed, still reached his half-century off 39 balls.

Uthappa was even quicker, making his fifty off 36 deliveries.

The pair shared 126 runs for the second wicket with Kallis 69 not out from 59 balls, including five fours and two sixes.

Uthappa was unbeaten on 66, having faced 42 deliveries in an innings that included eight fours and two sixes.

Bangalore seamer Dillon du Preez, who returned with 3-32, got his IPL debut off to a dream start, bagging three wickets before conceding a run.

Coming on at first change, Du Preez removed Sachin Tendulkar and Ajinkya Rahane with successive deliveries in his first over.

And in his next, he had JP Duminy caught behind to leave Mumbai reeling at 23-3 before Sanath Jayasuriya and Dwayne Bravo compiled 60 runs for the fourth wicket to stage a recovery.

Jayasuriya smashed 52 runs from 43 balls with six fours and one six. The Sri Lankan veteran was removed by spinner Roelof van der Merwe in the 15th over, but Abhishek Nayar joined Bravo in an unbroken 66-run stand for the fifth wicket to keep Mumbai in control.

Bravo made 50 not out from 40 deliveries with one boundary and two sixes, and Nayar was unbeaten on 29 off 20 balls.

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Having got its campaign back on track, Delhi Daredevils will be eyeing its fifth victory while a rejuvenated Chennai Super Kings will be out for revenge in Saturday’s Indian Premier League match.

The Delhi team’s winning streak came to a halt after defending champion Rajasthan Royals inflicted a five-wicket mauling on Tuesday, but the Virender Sehwag-led side shrugged it off to thump Deccan Chargers by six wickets on Thursday.

With eight points from five matches, the Delhi outfit is second in the table behind topper Deccan Chargers on net run-rate.

Last year’s runner-up Super Kings, meanwhile, has had a slow start but is slowly picking up steam.

After hammering Royals by 38 runs, it has now climbed from second last to fifth place in the chart with five points from six outings.

And now it would be aiming to improve its standings further while exacting revenge on the Delhi side to which it had gone down by nine runs in the previous meeting.

But that’s easier said than done and though the ominous opening pair of Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir has failed to click so far, one good knock could see things fall in place for the explosive duo.

Tillakaratne Dilshan, whose unbeaten 52 guided Daredevils to victory against Chargers, is in sparkling form with A B de Villiers and Dinesh Karthik adding to the strength of the line-up.

Daredevils has found a dependable new-ball pair in Australian left-arm paceman Dirk Nannes and India discard Ashish Nehra, who are extending good support to their batting colleagues.

Daniel Vettori and Pradeep Sangwan will also add to the worry of Chennai’s batting order, consisting the likes of Matthew Hayden and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

In-form Hayden is the leading run-getter in this IPL with 216 runs and Chennai will depend a lot on his lusty hitting to get even with Daredevils.

After his 98-run heroics against Rajasthan, a lot can be expected from Raina, while S. Badrinath and all-rounder Jacob Oram would also be there to lend support.

Spin legend Muttiah Muralithran has so far failed to live up to expectations and the team also lacks penetration in the opening overs. It will depend on speedster Albie Morkel to cash in on his home advantage and give early jolts to Daredevils.

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Having suffered their first defeat in the tournament, table toppers Deccan Chargers will seek to return to winning ways when they clash with an unpredictable Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League here on Saturday.

Although the Deccan Chargers’ fairytale campaign was stopped on Thursday night by the Delhi Daredevils, the Hyderabad team is a formidable opponent for the Royals and are sitting pretty at the top with four wins out of five matches.

Tagged as laggards last year, the Chargers have been a revelation in this edition of the IPL Twenty20 tournament and looked unstopabble till Thursday when Daredevils defeated them by six wickets.

The Chargers’ will be relying heavily on captain Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs, who flopped for the first time in the event against the Daredevils, to fire up front as the duo played a significant role in their success so far.

Gilchrist and Gibbs have been in rampaging form and have blown away their opponents with their powerful hitting. The Chargers middle order looks impressive with Rohit Sharma and Dwayne Smith scoring against the Daredevils on Thursday.

Except for one bad outing against the Daredevils, the Hyderabad team’s bowling department has also looked in good shape with RP Singh leading from the front and young Pragyan Ojha emerging as a new talent in India’s spin department.

West Indian Fidel Edwards, who looked little out of sorts against the Daredevils, will look to come out charged up against the Royals to make amends for his poor show. On the other hand, with two victories out of six matches, Shane Warne-led Rajasthan Royals, are at the bottom half of the points table.

The defending champions had a mixed outing in the tournament so far and lacked consistency in their performance. Their unpredictability can be ascertained from the fact that just after their five-wicket triumph over formidable Dardevils on Tuesday, they slumped to a 38-run loss at the hands of a struggling Chennai Super Kings on Thursday.

Batting continues to remain a concern area for the Royals with the top three Graeme Smith, Rob Quiney and Swapnil Asnodkar emerging as a big disappointment. The defending champions are depending heavily on Yusuf Pathan to come good which is putting extra pressure on the right-hander.

The Royals’ bowlers too have their task cut out as Super Kings’ Suresh Raina smashed them all over the park to expose their weakness.

To add to their woes, the Royals might have to do away with young Kamran Khan who injured his foot against Chennai and didn’t come out to bat later.

Tags: Adam Gilchrist, Deccan Chargers Vs Rajasthan Royals, Graeme Smith, Hershchelle Gibbs, Hyderabad Deccan Chargers, IPL 2, IPL 2009, IPL 2009 News, IPL Scores, IPL South Africa, IPL Updates, Jaipur Rajasthan Royals, Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Shane Warne, Yusuf Pathan

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Yuvraj Singh had almost single-handedly won the match and if he would have stayed there five overs more, the game would have been all over, feels Royal Challengers skipper Anil Kumble.

“The ball was stopping and coming and Yuvraj of course likes pace on the ball and I wanted to take the pace off and that worked. Yuvi was going great guns and if he had been five overs more, probably the game was over and there on we really tightened screw,” Kumble said after the match.

Yuvraj Singh notched up the first hat-trict of second Premier League and also scored a blistering 33-ball 50 but still could not avoid Kings XI Punjab’s narrow 9-run defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore here today.

Kumble gave credit to Roelof van der Merwe for posting such a competitive target even after losing three wickets in three balls.

“It was a great game. After losing three wickets in three balls, I thought Re (van der Merwe) batted fantastically to get us to 145 and everybody rallied around him and when we got to the score we really backed ourself. It is a great show by the bowlers,” he said.

Merwe score a quickfire 35 off 19 balls studded with three fours and three sixes to post a target of 146 to win against the Kings XI Punjab.

Kumble also lavished praise on Praveen Kumar for his crucial over in the end. “It was tough to grip the ball because of the dew. We didn’t expect dews and Praveen is a quicker baller and has experience and he bowled brilliantly,” he said.

Kumble, who succeeded Kevin Pietersen as skipper, said they are improving with each game and hoped the winning streak will continue.

Disappointed at the loss, Yuvraj Singh said the opponent were a better side on the given day.

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Mumbai Indians beat Kolkata Knight Riders by nine runs in their Indian Premier League match on Friday.

A good half century from JP Duminy (52 not out, off 37 balls) and a couple of lower order contributions saw the Mumbai Indians set the Kolkata Knight Riders a competitive target of 149 to win in their IPL match at East London in South Africa.

Earlier, the Mumbai Indians captain Sachin Tendulkar won the toss and elected to bat in their match against the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Unlike earlier matches, the powerful opening pair of Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya failed to click and the latter was out for 6. With Tendulkar (34 off 30 balls) too leaving at the score of 54 for 3, the Indians seemed to struggle to reach a fair score. JP Duminy’s innings, supported by Graham Napier (15), Ajinkya Rahane (10) and Abhishek Nayar (10) saw the Mumbaikars reach 148 for 6 in 20 overs.

With nothing to lose, and languishing at the bottom of the table, Kolkata has to win this match if they are to keep in touch with any faint hopes they may have to qualify for the semi finals.

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