Deccan wins the IPL title

Adam Gilchrist and his never-say-die Deccan Chargers teammates defeated Bangalore Royal Challengers by six runs in a humdinger to be crowned the second Indian Premier League champions in Johannesburg 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. 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 tight spot.

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.

Meanwhile, a glittering closing ceremony, with dash of glitz and glamour, drew curtains on the second edition of the Indian Premier League razzmatazz.

South Africa President Jacob Zuma thanked the organisers for choosing the country as venue of the Twenty20 league which was shifted out of India after it coincided with the Lok Sabha election.

"I thank the organisers for showing trust in South Africa's ability to host the event in such a short notice. We had to prepare eight stadiums in three weeks' time, besides arranging extra hotel rooms and air tickets," Zuma said.

"I also thank the Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty for coming here," he added.

IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi took the occasion to thank the government and the cricket board here and said IPL II would not have been a success but for their cooperation.

In his message to the Indian fans, Modi said, "I promise you all that we would return to India bigger and better." Modi's speech was followed by a light and sound show after which R&B sensation Akon took the centre stage to entertain the crowd, starting with his 'Smack That' number.