Hyderabad beats Bangalore in IPL final
Deccan Chargers became the 2009 Indian Premier League champions after beating Bangalore Royal Challengers by six runs in the final on Sunday at Johannesburg's Wanderers Stadium.
After finishing bottom in the inaugural tournament last year, Deccan exceeded all expectations.
"We were happy to be playing without any big expectation because we were trying to rebuild," Deccan Chargers captain Adam Gilchrist said. "Given what we did last year it was a phenomenal effort by everyone in the franchise to turn things around."
Herschelle Gibbs top-scored with an unbeaten 53 while Andrew Symonds was the next best performer with 33 as Deccan reached 143-6 from its 20 overs.
Gilchrist paid tribute to Andrew Symonds, who took two wickets in two balls to undermine Bangalore's run chase.
"He is a great team man. He creates good spirit in the team. He's just a great personality and a wonderful talent on a cricket field," Gilchrist said.
Bangalore captain Anil Kumble said his team did well to even reach the final.
"We worked really hard to get to this," Kumble said. "But having said that nobody gave us a chance three weeks ago to be in the final."
Kumble, who was named man-of-the-match after taking 4-16 in four overs, said the dismissal of Ross Taylor and Virat Kohli by Symonds was a big blow to Bangalore's chase.
"We were cruising. But those two wickets in two balls did it," Kumble said.
Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha also bowled with impressive variation for Deccan, taking three wickets for just 28 runs as Bangalore were restricted to 137-9 in reply.
Bangalore never really developed any momentum, losing wickets at regular intervals, mainly due to poor shot selection.
Opener Jacques Kallis was first to go, bowled by Rudra Singh for 16 in the fourth over.
Manish Pandey, Bangalore's hero in the last two matches, was out for four edging a turning Ojha ball to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist in the seventh over.
Roloef van der Merwe top-scored 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 nine runs before Harmeet Singh bowled him while attempting to sweep.
Ross Taylor was next, caught in the deep by Venugopal Rao off of Symonds, who also accounted for Virat Kohli (7) who he had stumped by Gilchrist.
Mark Boucher on five then attempted to clear the covers with a cut shot but was caught by Gibbs.
Praveen Kumar on two swung at an Ojha ball for Rudra Singh 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.