For once, Ravi Shastri was entitled to bellow his lungs out on the mic and invite the world and its uncle to party, because this was an occasion that was worthy of some over-the-top hype. The finals couldn't have featured teams better suited to headline writers if it had been scripted - after all, these were the sides that were locked in a 'least-worst' contest last year. But in a true testament to the nature of
T20 cricket, where the form of the day is what counts, they had risen to the summit of this year's contest.
It started off on expected lines -
Anil Kumble won the toss and opted to bowl, Adam Gilchrist said he wasn't sure what he would have done on winning the toss.
With Kumble opening the bowling in recent matches, one of the most eagerly awaited battle-within-battles of the finals happened in the first over itself, when Gilchrist faced up to his opposite number. However, it was not a classic by any means - it was a hands down triumph for Kumble who bowled Gilchrist off the third ball of the match, giving his team a huge early advantage. Mindful of Gilchrist's penchant for swatting faster bowlers like so many flies, Kumble cleverly slowed down the pace of the ball, to lure him out and fool him with the wrong 'un.
Much like in the semi-finals, Kumble brought himself on for only one over inside the power-play. In the previous match, his target had been to get Hayden, this time it was Gilchrist. He failed then, but was right on the money today.
Hyderabad suffered another jolt when Suman was out to
Vinay Kumar - the leading edge going in the direction of the covers, where Manish Pandey took a well judged catch despite the fact that 2 other fielders were running in, and no one called for it.
To have a reasonable chance at a match-winning total, Hyderabad needed Symonds and Gibbs to combine well. They did get a partnership going but were fortunate. Had
Rahul Dravid - the world record holder for catches in Test cricket - not fluffed a sitter off
Andrew Symonds. The unfortunate bowler was Vinay Kumar, and Symonds was then on 5 from 6 balls, and Hyderabad were 23 for 2 in 5.2 overs.
Hyderabad then had another slice of luck, when Gibbs edged a ball between the wicket-keeper and Dravid who was at a widish first slip off Kallis.
With Symonds opening his shoulders and looking dangerous, Anil Kumble went to his go-to bowler for tight situations - i.e. himself. The change worked, as Kumble got Symonds bowled, the ball looping off the batsman's thigh pad and onto the bails, and after a brief recovery Hyderabad were once again on the backfoot, heading into the strategy break at 62 for 3.
The Bangalore bowlers maintained the pressure, and it was a matter of time before something happened. Either Gibbs and Rohit Sharma would be successful in breaking the shackles, or would perish in trying to do so. Hyderabad had endured a 36 ball dry spell, boundary wise, but the batsmen finally found their timing and placement with a flurry of boundaries, and Praveen Kumar's third over went for 20 runs, both batsmen hitting him for sixes. The fifty partnership was raised in 41 balls, and both batsmen looked set to explode.
However, the finals had a set script to follow - everytime a batsman or partnership looked threatening, Kumble would bring himself on and get a wicket. That is exactly what he did in his fourth over - the 17th of the innings - by foxing Rohit Sharma who holed out to long off for 24 off 23 balls. Kumble wasn't done though, and off his final ball, scalped Venugopal Rao as well to leave Hyderabad 115 for 5 after 17 overs. Kumble returned with absolutely outstanding figures of 4-0-16-4, and appropriately enough, the last ball he bowled in the tournament got him a wicket.
The other bowlers followed Kumble's lead and Hyderabad were not able to get in a single big over at the end of their innings, and ended up with a slightly below-par total of 143 for 6.
Herschelle Gibbs had carried his bat through the innings for 53 not out off 48 balls.
Bangalore, who towards the end of the tournament had discovered a realiable opening pair, started cautiously, with both Kallis and Pandey playing carefully at the start. They had wanted to build a good base, but purple cap holder RP Singh put paid to those plans when Kallis dragged a ball back, to send his leg-stump cartwheeling in the fourth over.
Bangalore's young success story, then fell to Hyderabad's young success story, when Pragyan Ojha got
Manish Pandey off the first ball he bowled, edging the ball into Gilchrist's gloves. Ojha got further success when he outfoxed van der Merwe to get him stumped after a cameo innings of 32 off 21 balls. Then Harmeet Singh, who had an economy rate of almost 9 before this match, uprooted Dravid's leg stump when the latter tried to be too cute and moved too far across his stumps. At 79 for 4 in 11.4 overs, the match hung nicely in the balance. The side that won the next passage of play would be the one most likely to get their hands on the trophy.
In a pressure match, while chasing a decent total, the pressure got to Bangalore and from 99 for 4 in 14.1 overs, they slid to 110 for 8 in 16.4 overs, losing two big wickets in two balls to Andrew Symonds. First Ross Taylor pulled a ball straight down the throat of deep square leg, then
Virat Kohli dragged his foot out of the crease to be excellently stumped by Gilchrist.
After that the writing was on the wall for Bangalore, and though Robin Uthappa managed to strike a six, he had been left with too tall a mountain to climb for a man who had been so out of form in the tournament. The Royal Challengers still made a spirited attempt, but fell short of the target by one DLF Maximum to end on 137 for 9.
It was thus Adam Gilchrist who lifted the silverware this time, ending season two of the IPL on a nicely symmetrical note - The last team last year was No.1 this year, while the the second last team came out second. A legendary, retired Australian cricketer beat a future India captain the last time, while a legendary, retired Australian cricketer beat an ex-India captain this time.
Full marks to Adam Gilchrist - he deserved every bit of the glory that came his way, though one couldn't help but feel for Anil Kumble who was at least as deserving of glory as Gilchrist, but unfortunately had to finish second.
