Chennai charge into final

Chennai will now face Mumbai Indians in the final on Sunday.

Chasing 143 for victory, Deccan lost wickets regularly and were bowled out for 104 in 19.2 overs.

Doug Bollinger bowled a superb spell, taking four wickets for 13 runs from his four overs. Shadab Jakati bagged two wickets.

Earlier, Chennai Super Kings posted 142 for seven wickets.

The Chargers bowlers stuck to their task brilliantly and even though there were spilled chances early on, managed to apply the brakes effectively to give their batsmen a golden chance to overhaul the modest Super Kings total.

Super Kings made a shock start by losing their top three batsmen, including in-form Suresh Raina, inside five overs with only 29 runs on board and never recovered. The 52-run partnership between Mahendra Singh Dhoni (30 in 32 balls), who struck three fours, and Subramaniam Badrinath, who was dismissed for 37 made in 41 balls, was the lone bright spot in an otherwise listless batting display.

For Chargers, Ryan Harris bowled a fine initial spell to get rid off openers Murali Vijay and Mathew Hayden cheaply and finished with excellent figures of three for 29.

The Super Kings’ of a flying start after opting to bat first on a wicket offering lot of carry to the pace bowlers seemed to be on thin ice with Hayden living a charmed life.

The left-handed Australian opener was dropped twice — by RP Singh and T Suman — but he failed to utilise his good fortune and was dismissed in the last ball of the second over.

Murali Vijay (15) followed suit after looking good for a big score when he took 13 runs in the third over from RP Singh, which included a superbly struck six over mid-wicket, before being trapped leg before by Harris with an in-dipper. The loss of the two openers after the first ball of the fourth over looked bad and worse followed when Super Kings’ batting lynchpin Raina departed for two, edging a drive off Symonds to rival skipper Adam Gilchrist to leave Chennai gasping at 29 for three.

It called for some cautious play mixed with aggression and Dhoni was the right man to do it with the steady, if unspectacular Badrinath, for company.

Dhoni and Badrinath put on 52 runs for the fourth wicket to give semblance of respectability to the Chennai innings with the team captain being the expected aggressor.

But the India captain fell just when he looked to be stepping up the pace, edging a leg break bowled wide by Harmeet Singh to fly-slip Rohit Sharma. Albie Morkel (4) flopped too and Badrinath slammed Symonds to the mid-wicket fence for a four to raise team 100 in the 16^th over.

Badrinath was sixth out, stumped when he charged out to R P Singh and failed to connect properly with Gilchrist standing up to the stumps.

Anirudha used the long handle to make a 15-ball 24, that included two sixes, which enabled Super Kings add 46 runs in the last five overs. —