A clinical Chennai Super Kings today defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by three wickets in a nail-bitting second qualifier to sail into the final of the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, here today, making it a record sixth appearance in eight editions of the event.
CSK rode on veteran Mike Hussey’s 56 off 46 balls to chase down the modest 140—run target with just one ball to spare.
CSK won the toss and opted to field first against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the second IPL qualifier match in Ranchi on Friday.
Royal Challengers Bangalore made 139 for eight. Nehra (3/28) picked up three crucial wickets to dismantle RCB’s innings. He was ably supported by Ravichandran Ashwin (1/13), Mohit Sharma (1/22), Dwayne Bravo (1/21) and Suresh Raina (1/36).
Chris Gayle top-scored for RCB with a unfamiliar 41 off 43 balls which was studded with two fours and three sixes.
Young Sarfaraz Khan (31 off 21 balls) played short little cameo towards the end to give RCB bowlers something to defend.
Teams:
Chennai : D Smith , M Hussey , F Du Plessis , S Raina , MS Dhoni (Wkt)(Capt) , DJ Bravo , R Jadeja , P Negi , R Ashwin , M Sharma , A Nehra
Bangalore : C Gayle , V Kohli (Capt) , AB de Villiers , Mandeep S , D Karthik (Wkt) , SN Khan , D Wiese , M Starc , H Patel , Y Chahal , S Aravind
Captains at toss...
Mahendra Singh Dhoni : "We are looking to bowl first. There will be a bit of dew later on so it will make it easy to chase. It's a knockout game now and the small things will matter most. We are playing with the same side."
Virat Kohli : "I would have batted first anyway as it's good to have runs on the board. It's a dry wicket and might break up later. So, we want to post a decent score on the board. We are fielding an unchanged side."
