Chennai Super Kings’ all-round brilliance proved too much for Kings XI Punjab as the former recorded an easy 65-run victory, in the second semi-final of the Oppo Champions League T-20 cricket championship at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Thursday night.
Chennai Super Kings will take on Kolkata Knight Riders in the final in Bangalore on October 4.
Chasing a victory target of 183, KXIP was never in the hunt as the CSK bowling struck repeatedly to leave the former tottering at 61 for seven in the 11th over. To the huge disappointment of the holiday crowd, the chase was never on as it was a virtual parade of departing batsmen in the face of disciplined, if not unplayable bowling.
Medium-pacer Mohit Sharma struck the first blow early, removing Virender Sehwag in the second over of the innings, and then left-arm medium-pacer Ashish Nehra removed Wriddhiman Saha and the big-hitting Glen Maxwell. KXIP was in deeper trouble soon as captain George Bailey and Thisara Perera too followed them into the dug-out with indiscreet stroke-play, failing to read left-arm spinner Pawan Negi.
A CSK win was never in doubt by the 11th over itself and the rest of the proceedings were only delaying the inevitable.
Earlier, it was a typical CSK rearguard action with the bat led by Dwayne Bravo’s chancy half-century which propped the total despite medium-pacer Parvinder Awana’s split hat-trick. Awana removed Suresh Raina with the last ball of his third over and then came back to dismiss Pawan Negi and captain M.S. Dhoni for a first-ball duck with the first and second balls in his fourth over.
It was below-par fielding that saw KXIP fail to wrest the initiative as CSK was struggling at 65 for three in 10 overs at one stage. Bravo was dropped twice — first by Glen Maxwell at long-off off leggie Karanveer Singh when on eight and then on 30 by left-arm spinner Axar Patel, off his own bowling.
Bravo, Faf du Plessis and Ravindra Jadeja played important innings for CSK in quick time, which pushed KXIP onto the back foot.
Scoreboard:
Chennai Super Kings:
Dwayne Smith b Awana 14
Brendon McCullum c Awana b Perera 6
Suresh Raina c Bailey b Awana 6
Faf du Plessis b Patel 46
Dwayne Bravo c Maxwell b Patel 67
Pawan Negi b Awana 8
M S Dhoni c Karanveer b Awana 0
Ravindra Jadeja not out 27
Ravichandran Ashwin not out 2
Extras: (LB—1 W—5) 6
Total: (For 7 wkts in 20 overs) 182
Bowling: Anureet Singh 4—0—44—0, P Awana 4—0—30—4, Thisara Perera 4—0—41—1, Karanveer Singh 4—0—36—0, Axar Patel 4—0—30—2.
Kings XI Punjab:
Virender Sehwag c McCullum b Sharma 0
Manan Vohra c du Plessis b Sharma 16
Wriddhiman Saha b Nehra 6
Glen Maxwell c Dhoni b Nehra 0
David Miller b Ashwin 22
George Bailey c McCullum b Negi 6
Thisara Perera c Bravo b Negi 0
Axar Patel b Raina 31
Karanveer Singh not out 17
Parvinder Awana c du Plessis b Raina 0
Anureet Singh c Raina b Jadeja 16
Extras: (LB-2, W-1) 3.
Total: (all out in 18.2 overs) 117
Bowling: Ashish Nehra 3-0-9-2, Mohit Sharma 3-0-14-2, Ravichandran Ashwin 4-0-33-1, Pawan Negi 4-0-28-2, Jadeja 1.2-0-9-1, Raina 2-0-10-2, Bravo 1-0-12-0.
Man of the match: Dwayne Bravo.
