The Biggest Indian Cricket Festival is about to begin. With the trademark IPL Trumpet already echoing in the ears of our Cricket Crazy nation, we bring to you one of the most remarkable memories of the Indian Premier League. Let’s take a walk down the memory lane to the second season which did not really start the way we expected it to. Due to the 2009 elections, the tournament was shifted to South Africa by the BCCI at a really short notice! Harsha Bhogle quoted this incident as “A move that turned out to be very advantageous for a few teams while it completely handicapped a few others!” One such team was the Deccan Chargers.
After a nightmare of an outing in 2008, the Deccan Chargers were completely revamped to a new avatar. From their CEO, Coach, Captain, team jersey everything got replaced as they geared up for the second season. With Deccan Chronicles backing them up, the Aussies- Adam Gilchrist (Captain) & Darren Lehmann(Coach) took matters in their hands! The Result? IPL Champions 2009!
Credits: The Statesman
The Squad
The Deccan Chargers were a well-balanced combination of a young brigade backed by experienced campaigners like Symonds, Smith, Gibbs & Captain Gilly himself. There were many moments in the tournament which gave us a glimpse of why DC was one of the favorites to win the tournament.
Credits: Sportskeeda
The 21-Run Rohit Rampage!
The 48th match of the season; Mashrafe Mortaza steaming in against a young Indian lad who was still in his early days of stardom! The romance between Rohit & Eden Gardens began from this very incident when he smashed 21 runs off the last over to get DC over the line. The Kolkata Knight Riders were left heartbroken but in the same universe at the same time, ‘The Hitman’ was born!
Credits: Cricbuzz
Leading from the Front: Gilly Boy!
Apologies for the pun but Gilchrist was at his absolute best during the second edition of IPL. Leading from the front, he played a few great knocks including his dominating innings of 85(35) against the Delhi Daredevils in the semi-final which completely took the opposition by storm and they were knocked out of the tournament. Gilchrist scored a total of 564 runs in this season of the IPL & was awarded the Man of the Series Title!
Credits: ESPN
Clear Individual Responsibilities
Every player of that squad be it a Symonds or an RP Singh, were very well aware of their responsibilities & contribution to the team. RP Singh took a total of 26 wickets in the tournament and did not let any batsman settle in the middle. Symonds’ 33(21) in the IPL Finale against the RCB and his bowling stats of 3-0-18-2 helped Deccan Chargers clinch the title!
Credits: ESPN
The Night of The Final
The Bullring (Johannesburg) was all set for a nail-biting contest between the 2 finalists. RCB had won the toss and chose to bowl first. Anil Kumble (Player of the Match) led from the front taking 4 wickets and never really giving the opportunity for the top order to settle. With Gilchrist back in the dugout for a duck, Gibbs made a struggling 53(48) with a strike rate you usually don’t relate with the South African! In came Andrew Symonds who blasted his way with a flying 33 off 21 helping DC reach a respectable total of 143/6.
What I remember vividly from the match is that magically animated sight of Adam Gilchrist talking to a young team in the huddle before the start of the 2nd innings. A sight like that usually gives you a hunch that this match might end up in DC’s favour given the spark & belief you could see in the Captain’s eyes! In the end, the usually attacking Royal Challengers could only manage 137/9 in their quota of 20 overs. It was a victory of a side that had turned the tables astonishingly from the least favorites to lifting the IPL Trophy! Gilly & his men proved how it does not matter from where you start; if you believe you can- how you finish is all that counts in the end!
Credits: Yahoo
With DC (later on) becoming the Sunrisers Hyderabad and now being led by the Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson, we wish the squad all the very best for the eleventh edition of Indian Premier League. May the best team win!
