Chennai beat Punjab, enter final

MUMBAI: Chennai Super Kings thumped Kings XI Punjab by 9 wickets in the second semi-final of the Indian Premier League at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.  

Chasing 113 runs to enter the final, Parthiv Patel and Suresh Raina guide Chennai to victory against Kings XI Punjab in the 15th over.

Chennai Super Kings will play favourite, Rajathan Royals at DY Patil stadium on Sunday in the final on the inaugural Indian Premier League.

Earlier, Chennai Super Kings' pace attack ripped apart the strong Punjab Kings XI top-order batting and restricted them to a paltry 112 for 8 in the second semi-final of Indian Premier League..

Everything went wrong for Kings XI Punjab after captain Yuvraj Singh opted to bat first on winning the toss and half their side was back in the dug-out with only 40 on the board on a seaming track.

Poor batting coupled with some good seam bowling undid the Punjab side.

Makhaya Ntini and Manpreet Singh Gony rocked the high-flying Kings XI Punjab side with a double strike each which reduced Yuvraj Singh-led team to a pathetic 34 for four in the sixth over.

Ntini started the domination of the ball over the bat when he had James Hopes caught behind chasing an outswinger for two in the second over.

Then Gony dismissed Kumar Sangakkara in similar fashion, caught by wicket keeper Parthiv Patel to leave Punjab at a shaky 2 for 11.

Things became grimmer when Kings XI Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh pulled Gony, who bowled an excellent four-over spell for figures of 2 for 14, straight to Muttiah Muralitharan at wide mid-on to leave them gasping at 28 for three.

But the biggest blow was when South African pacer Ntini dismissed Punjab batting mainstay Marsh in his third over.

At 45 for six there was a possibility of Punjab doing worse than what Kolkata Knight Riders had done (67 all out; the lowest score of IPL) against Mumbai Indians at the same venue on May 16.

This was averted with Wilkin Mota (25 off 26 balls) and Ramesh Powar (28 off 22 balls; 1X6; 4X4) leading the way by adding 35 runs for the eighth wicket.

Powar helped boost the tally by creaming Balaji for three fours in the last over from which 14 runs were scored.

Ntini got 2 for 23 in his four overs bowled on the trot, Morkel ended up with 2 for 27 while Muralitharan, who bowled the first over of the innings, finished with 1 for 19.

Royals continue their ruthless march

MUMBAI, PTI: Riding on a brilliant all-round display by Shane Watson, the ruthless Rajasthan Royals crushed Delhi Daredevils by 105 runs in a lop-sided semi-final to storm into the final of the Indian Premier League on Friday.

Watson powered his way to a 29-ball 52 with three sixes and four fours in his team's challenging total of 192 for nine after league table toppers Rajasthan Royals were asked to take first strike by Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag.

Later, Watson ripped out the top-order of Delhi with a triple strike to account for the top three Delhi batsmen Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan cheaply to reduce them to 24 for three.

Delhi never recovered from this early body blows and lost wickets at regular intervals while the asking rate kept climbing before they were shot out for a paltry 87 in 16.2 overs.