As Blue always wins !!!!!!

Deccan chargers are the winner of Indian Premier League 2009 in South Africa.

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.

For the second year in a row, the Indian Premier League was won by a team that had a fairytale run to the title.It was Team Rajasthan Royals 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 Deccan chargers, to pull off an amazing turnaround. Deccan rose from rock bottom, shaken and stirred, to pull off a sensational victory in the final, thus adding another chapter to the sweet irony of last-year’s wooden spoon holders.

The IPL ended in spectacular fashion as one IT city barely held off the other in a match that went down to the wire. Defending a mere 143 runs, Adam Gilchrist’s men provided the much needed spark to swing their side’s fortunes in an exceptional manner.

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 today. 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.

This time Its bottoms up , underdogs of the IPL 2008 are the finalist in IPL 2009 what more exciting than this !!!!
Indian Premier League (IPL) proved that it is the best world class competition with all the drama, tragedy, action & turning climax as much as some blockbuster film even better than that !!!!

As in the last year underdog Rajasthan Royal won the Game, this time also proved that IPL is best for underdogs to show their self that they can also play much better than all the kings & daredevils.The two IT cities have surprised experts, making this T20 extravaganza exciting for the second year in succession. They have ensured that anything is possible in this extremely unpredictable format. Today is the D day & there will be grand finale of IPL 2009 between the Jumbo’s Royal Challengers Vs Gilly’s Deccan Chargers at Johannesburg.

It is hard to project a player-versus-player contest here. Will it be Adam Gilchrist’s willow-power against Praveen Kumar and Jacques Kallis’ new ball attack? Rohit Sharma’s finesse or Andrew Symonds’ belligerent hitting against Anil Kumble’s precision?This could also be a battle for youngsters like Virat Kohli and Manish Pandey competing with T Suman and Azhar Bilakhia.

On the face of it, this could be anyone’s trophy. The atmosphere at the Wanderers can get quite intimidating when close to 50,000 spectators will fill up the stands.On paper, Hyderabad definitely look the better side. The loss to Bangalore at Centurion on Thursday notwithstanding, they have a top-order boasting of some of the biggest names this format can think of.

Even if one of these players - Gilchrist and Gibbs or Symonds and Sharma - bats to his full potential, it will be enough to wipe out any opposition. Gilchrist showed precisely that in the first semifinal, cracking one of the best T20 knocks ever.For Bangalore too, the batsmen have been at the helm in the last few matches. In fact, it has been at least one of the top-order men in every game delivering the goods.

Probable Teams

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Manish Pandey, 2 Jacques Kallis, 3 Roelof van der Merwe, 4 Rahul Dravid, 5 Ross Taylor, 6 Virat Kohli, 7 Robin Uthappa, 8 Mark Boucher (wk), 9 Praveen Kumar, 10 R Vinay Kumar, 11 Anil Kumble (capt.).

Deccan Chargers: 1 Adam Gilchrist (capt./wk), 2 Herschelle Gibbs, 3 T Suman, 4 Rohit Sharma, 5 Andrew Symonds, 6 Azhar Bilakhia/D Ravi Teja, 7 Venugopal Rao, 8 Harmeet Singh, 9 Pragyan Ojha, 10 Ryan Harris, 11 RP Singh.

Definitely this will be the most exciting game of the IPL 2009 as both will fight to prove that they are best to hold the trophy.

Bangalore Royal Challengers defeated last year’s runners-up Chennai Super Kings by six wickets in the second semi-final of the Indian Premier League and will take on Deccan Chargers in final.

Anil Kumble won the toss and invited Chennai Super Kings to bat first in the second IPL semi-final.

Sent in to bat first, Chennai Super Kings scored 146/5 in 20 overs against spirited Bangalore Royal Challengers at New Wanderers Stadium.Bangalore grabbed wickets at regular intervals after the strategy break to restrict the rampaging Super Kings, who scored at 8 runs in the first 10 overs. Besides the 61-run partnership between the openers, Chennai batsmen failed to find their feet on the slow surface.

Super Kings lost Parthiv Patel (36) and Matthew Hayden (26) after a cracking start against Bangalore Royal Challengers at New Wanderers Stadium.Openers Patel and Hayden got Super Kings off to a rollicking start and scored briskly in the powerplays. Hayden blasted 26 runs in 19 balls with the help of two fours and a six.Manish Pandey took a comfortable catch at the deep midwicket off Vinay Kumar to dismiss dangerous Hayden cheaply.Patel followed Haydos, as Royal Challengers grabbed two quick wickets before the strategy break to foil Chennai’s surge. Aggressive of the two, Patel batted beautifully for his 36 runs before being snapped by Jacques Kallis in the 9th over.

After losing their openers in quick succession, MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina played cautiously and opted to go big only off the loose balls.Destructive Suresh Raina did not last long only managed 20 runs before being claimed by his UP team-mate Praveen Kumar. Kumar enjoyed every bit of the dismissal.Dhoni worked hard for his 28 runs in 30 balls which did not include any hit to the fence. He was caught brilliantly by Vinay Kumar in the deep off Roelof van der Merwe.Albie Morkel also chipped in with 20 runs off 17 balls.

Young sensation Manish Pandey (48) and Rahul Dravid (44) stole the thunder from Super Kings and batted like mighty under the lights. Both displayed some exquisite timing hitting the leather and kept the scorers busy all throughout.Manish, who became the first Indian to slam an IPL ton, missed his first fifty when Shadab Jakati’s delivery found its way to the stumps. He smashed seven fours in his magnificent innings.Dravid’s love for the ball remained the same as he timed the ball with perfection. Dravid hammered six fours in his 44-run stay. Muttiah Muralitharan got the prized wicket of Dravid.Pandey and Dravid steadied Bangalore after early wickets and together added 50 runs in 34 balls. Both played some lusty shots and scored with ease under the lights.

Bangalore lost Jacques Kallis (9) early against Chennai at New Wanderers Stadium. Manpreet Gony drew the first blood and dismissed Kallis when he edged one to Parthiv Patel behind the stumps much to his disappointment.Roelof van der Merwe (2) was sent up the order to pace the innings but failed to deliver. Muralitharan dropped him once at the mid-off but Albie Morkel rocked Merwe’s timbers the very next ball, much to the relief of Murali.

Chasing 147 runs to win, cool Ross Taylor (17*) and angry young boy Virat Kohli (24*) ensured Royal Challengers home in 18.5 overs.

Now Royal Challengers will meet the Deccan Chargers, who thumped the Delhi Daredevils by six wickets in Centurion on Friday, in the final for the championship.

What a Match!!!!! Most Entertaining inning in IPL 2009 till now!!!

A blistering 85 from skipper Adam Gilchrist propelled last edition’s bottom-ranked Deccan Chargers into the final of the Indian Premier League following their six-wicket win over Delhi Daredevils in the first semi-final.Delhi didn’t do anything wrong, just that they were dazzled by an old man’s frenzy that threw them out of the IPL 2009.

The assault, though, started with a brutal attack on one of the best bowler of the tournament, Dirk Nannes. Chasing 154, he took 21 off Nannes’ first over, employing all the shots that could have been played. Anything short was hooked or pulled mercilessly, and if the bowler dared to pitch it up, it was driven down the ground.

Spinners came on as early as the fifth over, but there was no shift in momentum. Gilly swept Pragyan Ojha and when he hit three sixes in a Virender Sehwag over, the writing was on the wall.

Looking clueless and dispirited, Delhi merely hoped that Gilly would play a wrong shot and get out. He edged one to get out in the 10th over, but by then the score was 102, off which the legend had contributed 85 (off 35 balls)!

The rest was child’s play and with the likes of Andrew Symonds around, it took Hyderabad eight more overs to reach the target.

Earlier, Gilly’s decision to play medium-pacer Ryan Harris paid off as he dismissed Gautam Gambhir and David Warner in the first over.

The Hyderabad attack was looking all charged up, but Sehwag knew how important it was for him to stay at the wicket. The Delhi dasher never took a backward step and kept counter-attacking the Hyderabad attack. Standing tall, he carted Harris and RP Singh around the park and Tillekeratne Dilshan (65 off 51 balls), too, gave him excellent support.

It had to be the strategy break to break Viru’s rhythm and right after the interval, the skipper missed the line of an Andrew Symonds delivery to be caught plumb in front.

But Dilshan carried on with the good work that he had been doing right through the tournament, finding the gaps and keeping the scoreboard ticking.

He was joined by AB de Villiers, who attacked right away and it seemed that a score of 170 was on the cards. But RP struck right when the game was drifting away from them, inducing an edge off AB, and Hyderabad were back in the hunt. Both RP and Harris were excellent in the last few overs, pitching it right up in the blockhole and varying the pace, which made it difficult for a well-set Dilshan to give the final push to the innings.

But with Gilchirst at his ominous best, no score was safe and Delhi found that out today much to their dismay.

Teams:

Delhi Daredevils: Gautam Gambhir, David Warner, Virender Sehwag(c), Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB de Villiers, Rajat Bhatia, Dinesh Karthik(w), Amit Mishra, Pradeep Sangwan, Dirk Nannes, Ashish Nehra

Deccan Chargers: Adam Gilchrist(w/c), Herschelle Gibbs, Tirumalsetti Suman, Andrew Symonds, Rohit Sharma, Venugopal Rao, Azhar Bilakhia, Ryan Harris, Harmeet Singh, Rudra Pratap Singh, Pragyan Ojha

Tags: adam, Chargers, Daredevils, Deccan, Delhi, final, gillchrist, IPL, Sehwag, semi, t20

Royal Challengers thus finished at third place in the standings and will take on Chennai Super Kings in the second semifinal on Saturday while fourth-placed Deccan Chargers will meet table toppers Delhi Daredevils in the first semifinal.

Young Manish Pandey notched up his maiden Indian Premier League century as Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Deccan Chargers by 12 runs in a high-scoring match here today to set up a semifinal clash against Chennai Super Kings.

Opting to bat, Royal Challengers Bangalore rode on Pandey’s blistering 73-ball 114 to post a competitive 170 for four before restricting Deccan Chargers to 158 for six in their alloted 20 overs.

By virtue of this victory, the Royal Challengers have moved to the third spot in the table with 16 points and will take on second-placed Chennai Super Kings in the second semifinal on Saturday, while Deccan Chargers will be up against mighty Delhi Daredevils in the first last four match tomorrow.

Chasing 171 for victory, Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs got Deccan Chargers off to a rollicking start scoring 64 runs in the first six overs.

Both the openers were in a murderous mood, especially Gibbs as he dispatched Praveen Kumar for back-to-back sixes and a four to score 22 runs of the fifth over.

Fellow country-mate Roelof van ver Merwe too came in the Gibbs’ firing line as he hit the left-arm spinner for two sixes — first over midwicket and then over long off in the next over.

Brief Score:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 170 for four in 20 overs. (Manish Pandey 114 not out, Roelof van der Merwe 23; Pragyan Ojha 2/32).

Deccan Chargers: 158 for six in 20 overs. (Herschelle Gibbs 60, Andrew Symonds 18; Anil Kumble 2/23, Balachandra Akhil 2/18).

Delhi Daredevils defeated Mumbai Indians by four wickets in their Indian Premier League match at the SuperSport Park.

A target of 165 and all eyes were on Sehwag (50 off 27 balls) as he walked in to bat at No. 3. but there was absolutely nothing in his batting that showed that he was going through a bad patch. The ball kept hitting the middle of the bat right from the word go and Sehwag looked like the player we all know.

With the Mumbai Indians pacemen unable to extract lateral movement, it was just a case of stand and deliver for Sehwag. He hit through the line with effortless ease as the target kept coming down at a rapid pace.

And of course, there was his trusted lieutenant Gautam Gambhir at the other end. It seemed that the duo had decided to take charge of the business end of the tournament. Even after Gambhir got out, Sehwag, along With Tillekeratne Dilshan, carried on for a while, but Harbhajan Singh struck off successive balls to bring some life back into the game.

Bhajji (4/17) removed AB de Villiers and Rajat Bhatia too to create some flutter, but Dinesh Karthik and Amit Mishra stemmed the rot to ensure a four-wicket win. Earlier, Delhi’s leading paceman Dirk Nannes, too, looked in fine form, removing Sanath Jayasuriya and JP Duminy early.

Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians 165/8 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 56, Sachin Tendulkar 46; Dirk Nannes, 3-27, Pradeep Sangwan 2-28)
Delhi Daredevils 166/6 in 17.3 overs (Gautam Gambhir 47, Virender Sehwag 50, Tillakaratne Dilshan 24; Harbhajan Singh 4-17).