Last in 2008, toppers this year: Deccan script IPL fairytale

Adam Gilchrist and his never-say-die Deccan Chargers teammates pipped Royal Challengers Bangalore by six runs in a humdinger to be crowned the second Indian Premier League champions here on Sunday.

Chasing a modest 144 for win, Bangalore rode on cameos from Roelof van der Merwe (32) and Ross Taylor (27) to come near the mark but eventually halted at 137 for nine in the final match.

Put into bat, the Chargers had earlier found their nemesis in Anil Kumble (4/16) and it took Herschelle Gibbs' unbeaten 48-ball 53 and Andrew Symonds' brisk 33 to reach 143 for six.

Despite the defeat, Kumble's was a towering presence on Sunday. The Bangalore captain won the toss, made the right decisions, struck with the ball whenever the tie threatened to slip through fingers but still found himself at the wrong end of the contest.

For Bangalore, the target was not huge but they lost Jacques Kallis (16) and the in-form Manish Pandey (4) early to find themselves in a spot of bother.

Coming at number three, van der Merwe had a busy time in the middle but even his lusty hits were not enough.

He copped some sledges from Andrew Symonds and ran some crazy runs before hitting Ryan Harris for two sixes in the same over. Symonds too was hit out of the park before Pragyan Ojha cut short the South African's eventful 21-ball stay.

Symonds removed Taylor and Virat Kohli (7) with successive deliveries to tilt the match and Bangalore lost wickets in heaps towards the end which proved decisive in the end.

Earlier, it was Kumble's four-wicket haul that restricted Deccan Chargers to a sub-150 score.

Kumble was in the thick of things right from the start and was quick to win the individual battle against his opposite number Gilchrist.

... contd.

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Last in 2008, toppers this year: Deccan script IPL fairytale