Former India left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha revisited how Deccan Chargers fought all odds to bag the 2009 Indian Premier League (IPL) title in South Africa.
One of the eight original franchises that kickstarted the league, Chargers finished last in the inaugural edition in 2008. But the young team led by Aussie great Adam Gilchrist charged its way to the trophy against all expectations the following year.
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"After finishing last in 2008, we didn't have sponsors. Because of late sponsors, you know, when we reached South Africa, we had a limited amount of clothes...training kits," Ojha told Cricbuzz about the miraculous season where he picked up 18 scalps to finish as one of the league's highest wicket-takers.
"That's when Gilly (Adam Gilchrist) came and told us that all these things don't matter, what matters is once you win the championship, see how things will change. And I'm telling you, once we won, it was totally a different thing."
The team had stalwarts in Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds, but it is the youngsters like Rohit Sharma, RP Singh and Ojha himself, who stood out with their performances. Ojha feels it is Gilly's inspirational leadership that proved to be a real handful.
"Gilly was so balanced," he said. "He knew exactly how to absorb pressure from the owners, or external pressure. He soaked in all of it and kept that away from the team and the support staff. Whatever pressure that the team used to face, maybe we didn't do well in some games or whatever, there was pressure from the owners, outsiders, like people not from the 15, support staff, he handled that very well. It was one of our biggest strengths."
Chargers beat that year's table-toppers Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) in the semi-final and then pulled off victory against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the tournament final at Jo'burg.
"Deccan Chargers were suddenly a different brand," said Ojha. "Everybody started looking at us in a different way. You're playing in alien conditions, nobody had a home advantage... nobody expected us to win after how we performed in the first [season]. We were a different team in the second edition."
(Inputs from Cricbuzz)
