Adam Gilchrist paid tribute to the entire Hyderabad set-up after last year's bottom-placed side capped a remarkable turnaround.

The Deccan Chargers stunned cricket fans by lifting the 2009 title in Johannesburg on Sunday night.

The Australian, who was named player of the tournament at a glittering closing ceremony at the Wanderers, led his side with grace as they defended a below-par 144-victory target to edge out the Royal Challengers Bangalore by a mere six runs.

Pragyan Ojha led the bowling line with three for 28 and was given good support from Andrew Symonds (two for 18) and Harmeet Singh (two for 28) as Bangalore's batsmen struggled to fire with only Roelof van der Merwe (32) and Ross Taylor (27) briefly threatening.

Earlier it was man-of-the-match and opposing skipper Anil Kumble (four for 16) who helped restrict Deccan, despite Herschelle Gibbs (53) hitting a patient half-century in the tournament decider.

"We certainly felt at the start of the tournament that we were coming in as one of the least favoured teams," the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman said afterward.

"I really encouraged our team to try to play everything down and fly under the radar if you like, because we were happy with that, without having any expectations on us.

"This is only the cricket I play now, so given what we went through last year, this is just a really tremendous effort from the whole franchise to turn it around. It's just been a great experience.

"The first thing I said at the start of our first meeting was, 'Guys, we're all in it together'. That was my first line of our first team meeting and yeah, we're all going to enjoy this together."

Gilchrist also felt for Kumble, but urged the Indian spinner to keep his head up high.

He continued: "I'm thrilled for him (Kumble) and their franchise, the way they turned it around.

"They experienced a lot of the pain and disappointment that we went through last year.

"As he said, who would have thought that last game last year we were playing for the wooden spoon and this year we're playing off for the title," added Gilchrist, who was referring to the way that last season's second-worse team had strung together their own reversal of fortune.

And Kumble could not hide his disappointment, but paid tribute to his side for their dramatic turnaround over the last 12 months.

He added: "I think any cricket game when you reach the final and lose, obviously it hurts. I feel 143 was gettable on this track, we were cruising and maybe those two wickets in two balls didn't help our cause. Without a decent partnership, we still came close to one hit, but that's basically what cost us the match at the end.

"Overall, if we look back at the whole tournament, I think the way we bounce back, to win five games in a row and get to the final was very creditable. We didn't do well last year and turned it around nicely this time.

"In this game we lost too many wickets, we never should have lost nine wickets, going into the last over and we paid the price. But credit to Deccan Chargers, they played a great game today."