Indian Premier League final, Johannesburg:

Deccan Chargers 143-6 (20 ovs) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 137-9 (20 ovs) by six runs Skipper Adam Gilchrist celebrates victory with his Deccan teammates

Deccan Chargers beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by six runs in Johannesburg in the final of the second season of the Indian Premier League. 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. And 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. 606: DEBATE 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 pro-rata basis, but Flintoff managed only three games for Chennai before getting 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. Pietersen and Flintoff played in the early stages of this year's IPL 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, fail to reach the semi-finals and 19-year-old 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). CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUALIFIERS Deccan Chargers (Ind) Royal Ch'gers Bangalore (Ind) Delhi Daredevils (Ind) Cape Cobras (SA) Eagles (SA) Victoria (Aus) New South Wales (Aus) Otago (NZ) Trinidad & Tobago (WI) Wayamba (SL) Twenty20 Cup winners and losing finalists (Eng) The eight teams already due to take part were both 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. However, Pakistan's domestic Twenty20 champions, Sialkot Stallions, will not feature because the Pakistan government has restricted travel to India. Anil Kumble celebrates Symonds' dismissal with Mark Boucher The first Champions League was scheduled to be held in December 2008, but was postponed following the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Middlesex, 2008's Twenty20 Cup winners, had been due to take part, although losing finalists Kent were barred because some of their players had played in the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League (ICL), which is a rival to Modi's IPL. Modi added: "The inaugural edition did not take place last year due to unfortunate circumstances but we are fully equipped this time around to conduct an extremely successful tournament."



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