Pragyan Ojha re-lives Deccan Chargers' rise from the lows of 2008 to the absolute highs of 2009 ©Agencies
In this new Cricbuzz series - Once upon an IPL final - we get some of the younger cricketers to retell tales of an IPL final they were part of. Here we have, Pragyan Ojha re-living Deccan Chargers' rise from the lows of 2008 to the absolute highs of 2009.
On the night before the final of IPL 2009 against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Deccan Chargers captain Adam Gilchrist woke up in the wee hours and wrote down something on a piece of paper: 'By tomorrow evening, Pragyan Ojha will be my man to go to and will be the Man of the Match'. Anil Kumble got the award on the big night, but Ojha was still Gilchrist's go-to performer with match figures of 3 for 28...
I've always believed, a bowler looks only as good as his captain. If the captain backs you, especially in this format, then you get a different kind of confidence. Once you get that confidence that even if you get hit, you develop a mindset of fearlessness. Once you become fearless, your approach, body language, changes. I've been fortunate to have played under MS, Gilly, played with Rohit, who are all bowlers' captains. They all back their bowlers and in this format, I strongly believe that a captain has to back his bowlers, only then can you win games and the bowler can be a match-winner for you. This format is such that the bowler gets hit more than getting you wickets or being economical.
That season, Darren Lehmann, Gilly and Rohit were really backing me. I was bowling in the powerplays. Whenever they wanted wickets, I was their go-to man. When you get that kind of backing and that confidence, I don't think any game will put pressure. You know you will deliver. Gilly would back me like anything. Rohit was my vice-captain. In the final, when suddenly (Roelof) van der Merwe was going after us, they told me, he's the guy whose wicket we need.
Even if you go for six sixes, we don't mind, but we need to get him out. That's the kind of confidence that really changes your body language because 90 percent of games, you play with your mind. I had a good season, I was picking wickets regularly. Without thinking of consequences, I was only thinking of how to get his wicket so we can have a better chance of winning.
After finishing last in the opening season, Deccan Chargers didn't have much hope pinned on them. Forget sponsors, they didn't even have enough training kits...
After finishing last in 2008, we didn't have sponsors. Because of late sponsors, you know, when we reached South Africa, we had limited amount of clothes...training kits. That's when Gilly 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. Deccan Chargers were suddenly a different brand. 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.
If you see the history of the IPL in the first three years, it took people time to understand how to play the tournament. Barring a few international cricketers, there were very few domestic players... who had a very less idea of how to go about it. So the first season we were playing, we had a champion side, but I always believed, irrespective of who your senior pros or international players are, it's the domestic players that win you the tournament. If they are good, you will win. After the first year we realised that it's not the senior international ones, but the domestic ones and the younger ones who play more games because we can only play four overseas players. So that's how we planned. I think VVS Laxman, Gilchrist and Darren Lehmann had a very good core team and that's how they planned.
After making the final, there would've surely been some pressure...
To be very frank, when you're playing such a long tournament, you just get used to the game. You're playing every second or third day... obviously, at the back of our mind, we knew it was a final, but when you're playing games regularly, that pressure of a final is not there because you're in that moment. If we, maybe, had a gap of 4-5 days then the pressure of a final would've come on to us. I'm not saying there was no pressure, but comparatively, it was a bit lesser because we were in that flow.
We didn't do anything special leading into the final either... they (captain and coach) were very cool about it. The whole season we never had a long team meeting. It was only for about five minutes maximum. Just a few things to discuss... They had a different approach. I've been in a lot of teams but Gilly and Darren Lehmann believed in not talking too much. They wanted the players to be comfortable and in the right zone and frame of mind, rather than sitting and having lots of discussions and trying to complicate things.
But that was the beauty of things. I think they (the big names) would've felt it a bit because in franchise cricket people expect you to perform every game. Gilly was so balanced. 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.
After an incredible 35-ball 85 that powered Deccan Chargers to the final, Gilchrist fell for a duck in the summit clash...
By the ninth over, we were through (to the final). I think a player of his stature, once they go after somebody, that's how they win you games. Days when such players play to their potential, I don't think anyone can stand against them. That's what we saw in the semifinal. He single-handedly took the game away from them.
This game is so fast... during the game, there are a lot of things that don't sink into you. The next day is when you sit back and think about what happened during the game. Initially we thought it (143) was not enough [in the final]. We knew the wicket was good but at the back of the mind, we knew the ball was turning a bit and assisting spinners. So Gilly had told me to be ready at any moment he wanted me to bowl. They were very particular that whenever I bowl, I should look to get wickets, not contain the batsmen.
Ojha's efforts, along with Harmeet Singh's 2-23, helped DC restrict RCB to 137, picking up a six-run win to be crowned champions. Ojha could finally gobble up a meal, but after celebrations in t-shirts reading 'Deccan Chargers - Champions' that he had had a glimpse of even before the final....
I'm a little superstitious, so I normally don't eat during a game, especially T20s. I just have some electrol and water. Since it's a franchise tournament and a city-based one, whole of Hyderabad was messaging us saying you have to win this, etc. I had to meet our owner's brother who was our caretaker in South Africa then where I was supposed to pick up a cap for myself as I had lost mine. So in his room there was a box. He told me you can pick up your cap from the box there and he was busy with something, so I opened the box and saw a t-shirt with 'Deccan Chargers - champions' written on them before the game. Imagine the kind of expectations that people had!
But even away from home, there was no dearth in support. Ask that little kid standing outside their team bus, waving a blue flag, backing his team to the hilt...
It was amazing because if you see places like Durban, Jo'burg,there are lot of Indians settled there. So whenever you go out there, you were always greeted and treated well. It was like a festival in South Africa. I doubt if something on the scale of an IPL ever had happened before there. Everybody was enjoying, not just Indians settled there, the locals, tourists travelling there for it. There was a place called East London there. I don't think we played any Test or ODI match there till I was there with the team. But we played an IPL game there... it was in some corner in South Africa. There were a lot of people coming out to watch games there.
We were the favourites. The brand of cricket we played throughout the tournament. Like a team coming last in one edition, the next one, we reach the final. The way everybody played, people loved it. We felt the support. We were getting down from the bus on the day of the final, one small kid, who wasn't even Indian, he was holding a Deccan Chargers flag and said I want my team to win. When you see such emotions, you feel really blessed to be there and win games for them and see the fans' happiness. It's ultimately the fans that make you who you are.
As told to Kritika Naidu
© Cricbuzz
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