The million dollar extravaganza, IPLT20 came to a close on 24th May 2009 at the Wanderers at South Africa with Deccan Chargers lifting the trophy defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore by six runs in a heart throbbing final encounter.
Anil Kumble won the toss for the RCB and opted to field first. Gilchrist was bowled by Kumble in the very first over. It then appeared that everything was over for Deccan Chargers but that was not to be. He took 4 wickets but still could not win the match for his team. At the ten overs time out mark, RCB were 62 for 3. Thereafter, Gibbs and Rohit Sharma gave some respectability to the score and the Deccan chargers were 143 for 6 after 20 overs.
Then RCB started their innings. They lost wickets at regular intervals in as much as Ross Taylor and Virat Kohli fell of two successive deliveries from Pragyan Ojha(3 for 24) which stopped them from achieving the desired target and then RCB needed only 15 runs in the last over, which in this format of the game is easily achievable.
But not today. Two dot balls faced by Robin Uthhapa in that over sealed the fate of RCB. They could muster only nine runs from the last over. Deccan chargers beat Royal Challangers by 6 runs and won the tournament. It was a dream come true and a fairy tale sort of victory for Deccan Chargers. Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Deccan Chargers were in the seventh and eighth place in last season of IPL.
Lalit Modi thanked the South African Cricket Board for their support in conducting the IPL in their country and invited Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa to declare the games closed.
Jacob Zuma thanked Lalit Modi and spoke about the arrangements he had made at such short notice and further added that-” the eight teams are now household names in South Africa”. He said that “everything halts when the match begins. India should have faith in South Africa. I am willing to conduct the next IPL in South Africa also if the need arises.. The IPL has uplifted the economy of South Africa by one billion Rands. The players have kept the country alive by their cricketing skills. We have to hold the FIFA world cup tournament in June 2009. I have the unpleasent duty to declare this tournament closed”.
Then began the closing ceremony with lot of fanfare. Crackers lit the sky line alround the stadium. The South African icon ‘Akon’ sang his favourite number from his last hit album. He is such a popular singer there that the entire crowd was on its feet clapping and dancing. Katarina Kaif danced to the tune of the Oscar winning song from Slumdog millionare -Jai Ho and this was choreographed very well.. Thereafter, Dune Kossatz was crowned Miss IPL Bollywood SA’.
Then came the long awaited presentation ceremony and the following received the awards:-
Maximum Sixes – Van der Merwe – One million rupees’.
Man of the Match – Anil Kumble – One million rupees.’.
Rohit Sharma – under 23 success of the tournament – one million rupees
Orange Cap for leading run scorer – Mathew Hayden.
Purple Cap – R.P.Singh for maximum wickets.
Fairplay Award went to King’s XI Punjab.
RCB players got the runners-up medals.
Deccan Chargers players got the winners medals.
Runner’s-up Cheque was grabbed by Anil Kumble for RCB – 2.4 crores (24 million Rupees)
Winners cheque was picked up by Adm Gilchrist – 4.8 Crores (48 million Rupees) and in addition the gold and diamond studded glittering trophy of IPLT-20
Thereafter Adam Gilchrist along with his team mates took the victory lap of the ground.
Ravi Matah