Chennai Super Kings

Rajasthan Royals lift the 1st DLF IPL Trophy in style

It was a dream final and the Rajasthan Royals won the first DLF IPL Cup by beating the Chennai Super Kings on the last ball of the final over . Both teams played exceptionally well with good batting, bowling and fielding performances.

Winning moments of IPL - video

Rajasthan Royals won the toss and put the Chennai Super Kings to bat, which was unlike any of their previous toss wins. The strategy was clear - plan a controlled innings based on how Chennai do with the bat.

Chennai got of to a decent start with Patel and Vidyut scoring at a reasonable pace considering the pitch was not too friendly for the batsmen. Their first wicket stand of 39 in 5 overs was respectable considering the semi-final matches. Once Vidyut was out, Suresh Raina took the crease and played a splendid innings of 43 in just 30 balls. Parthiv Patel was next to give away his wicket and was soon followed by Morkel. Patel, Morkel and Vidyut all lost their wickets to Yusuf Pathan who bowled beautifully to end his spell at 22/3 in his four overs. Dhoni scored a quick 29 of 17 balls towards the end. The final score of the Super Kings was 163/5 which was a good target for a bowler friendly pitch.

The Royals were missing Graeme Smith today and their opening was done by Neeraj Patel and Asnodkar. Patel lost his wicket to Gony in the fourth over after struggling to connect with the ball. Akmal, the new batsman also lost his wicket on account of a superb throw by Ntini resulting in a run-out. Next in was the Rajasthan Royals’ hero Shane Watson who has been most consistent throughout the series. However, Asnodkar also lost his wicket in haste to Morket thanks to Raina who took an excellent catch. Yusuf Pathan came next and with his partner in crime, Watson continued the hard-hitting for the Royals in a 65 run stand before being bowled by Muralitharan for 28. Yusuf Pathan did the main damage and scored 56 runs from just 39 balls which included 3 fours and 4 sixes. Kaif and Jadeja came in next but played insignificant innings. Shane Warne and Sohail Tanvir were in next and finished the job in a pressure situation by scoring the remainder of the runs.

Rajasthan won by three wickets on the last ball of the final over - the adrenalin being at the highest.

Winning moments of IPL - video

Turning point of the match was probably when Raina dropped Yusuf Pathan when he was playing on 13 runs. Yusuf Pathan was dropped twice at 13 and 33 runs.

Yusuf Pathan was named Man of the Match.

Other awards given out were :

Shane Watson was Man of the Series (Rajasthan Royals)

Red Cap for best batting performance went to Shaun Marsh (Kings XI Punjab)

Purple cap for best bowling went to Sohail Tanvir (Rajasthan Royals)

Under-19 performer : SP Goswami (Bangalore Royal Challengers)

Fairplay award : Chennai Super Kings

Bottomline : Rajasthan Royals won the 1st edition of the DLF Indian Premier League Cup 2008

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Tags: asnodkar, Chennai Super Kings, dlf indian premier league, dlf ipl cup, graeme smith, IPL, ipl final video, ipl finals, jadeja, kaif, kamran akmal, MS Dhoni, neeraj patel, parthiv patel, Rajasthan Royals, shane warne, shane watson, sohail tanvir, suresh raina, vidyut, yusuf pathan