When Kumble’s Magic Was Not Enough For RCB In South Africa

Heroes In the IPL Finals- Episode 2

With the grand success of IPL in 2008, the much-awaited glam boy of cricket travelled to South Africa for its second round of the immortals. With elections in India and security reasons, the IPL was shifted to a flamboyant, colourful and Indo-centric country of Africa. With fast pitches and hazy conditions, everything was at the peak and gearing up to be the exciting league that everyone was waiting for.

The stage was set for a dramatic and most-awaited cricket league in the world. However, among all 8 teams, whenever we talk about fair-tale endings, 2009 IPL was a kind-of similar stories for both of our finalists Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Deccan Chargers (DC). Last year, both RCB and DC was languishing at the bottom in the points table at 7^th and 8^th position respectively. But this time around, the destiny and hard-work had a different writing on the walls. Both teams not only rose above all in the league stages but also played the finals.

DC’s Journey in a Nutshell:

With the team flagging at the bottom and indifferences in the side, DC completely revamped their set-up and bought in a new support staff. Adam Gilchrist took over the responsibility of captaining the side, as a skipper. Gilly was a perfect foil for the team as he not only played his part with bat, he also guided the young boys in crucial match situations. In the bowling department, RP Singh and Pragyan Ojha took over the onus and with the help of Australian quickie Ryan Harris, together they built a formidable unit. The batting was led by their skipper, H Gibbs and young players like Rohit Sharma and T Suman. As an allrounder, Andrew Symonds proved as a chief destroyer whenever needed.

DC went off to a great start, winning their first 4 games. However, things took a turn as they lost their next 3 games. With alternate wins and losses in next 5 matches and losing the final two, DC ended up with 14 points which was similar to KXIPs tally. But, with a superior run-rate throughout their league stages, DC entered the semi-finals. In semi-finals, DC faced off against Delhi Daredevils (DD), but at the back of a great spell by Ryan Harris (3/27) and Gilly’s wonderful knock (85 of 35), DC crushed DD easily by 6 wickets to enter their first ever IPL finals.

RCB’s Journey in a Nutshell:

Same as their nemesis, RCB too overhauled their support staff and went in with Anil Kumble as their captain. Like Gilly, Kumble too had a stellar season and ended by becoming the second highest wicket taker in those quick pitches in South Africa. RCB’s batting mostly dependant on the experience of J Kallis, R Dravid and R Taylor plus a young sensation named Manish Pandey who become the first Indian to score an IPL hundred. In bowling department, along with skipper, Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar and Kallis took the responsibility of bowling the important overs.

RCB started decently by winning their first game in the tournament but lost their plot after that game. They went on to lose their next 4 matches, repeating their story from the last year. However, RCB stood together as a unit and won 7 out of their last 9 matches (4 out last 4 matches) and sat at 3^rd position in the points table with 16 points. In semi-finals, RCB faced the last year’s finalists and table-toppers CSK, however their bowlers bowled exceedingly well as a unit and kept the total below 150. RCB chased down the target easily with 6 wickets to spare (Manish Pandey 48 of 35) and beat the tournament favourites to enter their first ever IPL finals.

The Big Stage, The Finals:

The stage was set for a magical ending in the finals. RCB won the toss and choose to bowl first on a tinge green Kingsmead wicket. But, RCB pulled a perfect rabbit out of the hat and started their innings with Kumble who removed his counterpart in the first over itself. Kumble bowled one of the best spells by any bowler in the history of IPL finals, where he achieved the figures of 4/16, picking up crucial wickets of R Sharma and A Symonds in the tricky junctures of the match. Vinay Kumar too joined the party and ended up with the figures of 2/30. For DC, H Gibbs was the only one who stood for the cause and ended up stroking a well-deserved fifty (53 of 48) in the process. At the end of the 20 overs, DC scored 143/6 which looked a below-par total considering the strong batting line-up of RCB.

In the second innings, RP Singh, the wonder boy for DC, removed Kallis in the fourth over of the innings at the score of 20. After that, Gilly went to his most dependable bowler P Ojha who dismissed RCB’s top-scorer in the tournament, M Pandey in the 7^th over. With the score of 36/2 and both their top scorers in the hut, things were in a dire situation for RCB. However, R van der Merwe hit 2 gigantic sixes and took the score to 57 in 8.2 overs. When things were starting to look good for RCB, Merwe played a horrific shot against P Ojha who ended up beating him in the flight and got him stumped.

Both R Taylor and R Dravid steadied the RCB’s ship until the score of 79 but unlike his nature, Dravid played a scoop and ended up getting bowled to Harmeet Singh. Kohli joined Ross Taylor and together they took the score to 99. But there was another twist waiting in the winds, as both got dismissed back to back thanks to the Australian pair of Symonds and Gilly. Things started to slide down for RCB as H Singh and P Ojha removed M Boucher and P Kumar respectively. However, R Uthappa was still there at the crease and with the help of Vinay Kumar, they both took the score to 129/9. With 15 needed of the final over, RP Singh was shouldered the responsibility to bowl the final over. RP Singh bowled a great over and gave away only 8 runs in the final over and helped DC to lift their first ever IPL trophy.

Anil Kumble for his outstanding spell of bowling (4/16) was awarded the man of the match, whereas Adam Gilchrist for his captaincy and batting performances (495 runs) was recognized as the player of the tournament. RP Singh won the purple cap for highest number of wickets (23) in the tournament.

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Image source- Cricshots.com

According to you, who was the true hero for DC in the IPL 2009?

1. RP Singh
2. Adam Gilchrist
3. P Ojha
4. Rohit Sharma