Underdogs To Champions

They finished last in the 2008 season, but were crowned champions in 2009. Their emblem is the bull and this time ‘The Bulls’ were fierce enough to take the trophy. Yes! It’s the Deccan Chargers. Lead by one of the most destructive batsman that the world has ever seen, Gilly and his boys were too tough to handle and Hyderabad had plenty of reason to celebrate.

Defending champions Rajasthan Royals had their chances, but Warne and team couldn’t pull up socks to defend the tile. It was surprising, rather astonishing to see Royal Challenge Bangalore as the contender for the finals. Chennai couldn’t deliver the goods and Kolkata lived a nightmare. With a different concept of multiple captaincy, Buchanan was under the scanner and SRK went unnoticed. It was time for Vijay Mallia to open up some champagne as his team was in the finals.

A dramatic final went underway and veteran bowler Anil Kumble bowled the first over of the match and unplugged Gilchrist, and the whole of RCB were partying in the centre. Soon the second wicket fell and RCB was at its peak when Dravid dropped a sitter to let Symonds cash in the chance. Symonds played a cameo of 33 runs and Kumble maintained his line to get him. Rohit Sharma and Gibbs batted well to take the score to 144, which was not a difficult target to chase. Having stopped the Chargers from further charging, both the openers were out in the middle and the crowd was on the edge expecting some crackers.

R.P Singh with the Purple cap did the magic by getting Kallis pull onto his stumps and the balance was set right. Manish Pandey the man in form was removed by Ojha and then the set van der Merwe was unplugged. With two quick back to back wickets the Deccan Chargers were right back in the game. Dravid had to bail out the team, but Harmeet Singh cleaned him by rattling his leg stump. The turning point came when Symonds took two wickets there by sending Taylor and Kohli back to dugouts in the same over.

Boucher and Uthappa looked to stabilize the innings by hitting some shots, but Harmeet Singh was not in an intention to disappoint his skipper and removed Boucher. Ojha with a gush of adrenaline rush dismissed Kumar and the collapse was sure for the RCB. Uthappa and Kumble couldn’t do much, but just to see their dream crash at Johannesburg.

Eight to win from one ball… the crowd comes alive… the whole team storms into the field and it’s the Deccan Chargers who turned tables and were the champions of season 2.

Now with IPL back home, the battle becomes fierce; the teams are geared up – Are You?