Deccan beats Bangalore to win IPL Cricket

Having lost Captain Adam Gilchrist for a third-ball duck, Herschelle Gibbs (53 not out) and Andrew Symonds (33 from 21 balls) helped Deccan post 143-6.

In addition, despite Roelof van der Merwe’s 32, Symonds took 2-18 and a late collapse left Bangalore six runs short.

The tournament was staged in South Africa because of security concerns. It clashed with the recent Indian general election and with the government unable to provide security assurances, South Africa pipped England to act as replacement hosts.

The 2009 tournament was the first to involve centrally contracted England players, and batsman Kevin Pietersen captained Bangalore for six games in the early stages before returning to England for their Test and one-day series against West Indies.

Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff were the most expensive players at the second season’s auction in February, each earning $1.5m on a prorata basis, but Flintoff managed only three games for Chennai before being injured.

Meanwhile, Australian skipper Ricky Ponting and key players Michael Hussey and Mitchell Johnson opted out of the competition, preferring instead to concentrate on the build-up to this summer’s Ashes Test series in England.

One innovation for the 2009 competition was a compulsory “tactical time out” halfway through each innings, lasting seven-and-a-half minutes but it was seen by some as hampering the game in order to provide broadcasters with more time to show commercials - and attracted criticism from India stars Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh.

The tournament saw last year’s winners, Rajashtan Royals, failed to reach the semi-finals and 19-yearold Manish Pandey become the first Indian to hit an IPL century when he made 117 for Bangalore against Deccan in a round-robin match.

But he could not repeat that in the final, scoring only four before being caught behind off Pragyan Ojha, who took 3-28 for the Chargers.

Robin Uthappa hit Ryan Harris for a huge six in the penultimate over to give Bangalore hope but the task of scoring 15 off the final six balls, bowled by left-arm pace bowler RP Singh, proved beyond them.

Despite the defeat, Bangalore skipper Anil Kumble, now retired from international cricket, was named Man of the Match for taking 4-16, including the wicket of opposite number Gilchrist.

IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, meanwhile, revealed that this year’s Twenty20 Champions League – of which he is also chairman - will be contested by 12 teams rather than eight, with a total prize fund of a prize fund of US$6m (£3.77m).

The eight teams already due to take part were IPL finalists – Deccan and Bangalore - plus the Cape Cobras and Eagles from South Africa, Victoria and New South Wales from Australia, plus the finalists from England’s Twenty20 Cup, which begins on Monday.

They will now be joined by domestic Twenty20 champions from New Zealand (Otago), Sri Lanka (Wayamba) and West Indies (Trinidad and Tobago) - plus a third IPL franchise, Delhi Daredevils - for the tournament, which will take place in India from 8 to 23 October, just after the Champions Trophy.

There will be 23 games played, with teams divided into four groups of three. Two teams in each group will move onto the second phase, with the four top teams reaching the semi-finals. Fixtures will be announced in London on 23 June.