IPL 4 playoffs: Chennai Super Kings avenge defeat to reach the finals

Chennai Super Kings defied the odds at Mumbai playing away from home as they avenged their defeat conceded earlier this Sunday. The Royal Challengers Bangalore will now face another test in the second qualifier whereas Chennai cruised themselves to yet another IPL final. For a greater part of the game Bangalore looked in front, thanks to a brilliant innings of resilience and courage by Virat Kohli. After Gayle lost his wicket early in the innings, they were certainly on the back-foot but the former India U-19 captain stepped up to the occasion scoring with ease and charm.

Kohli’s innings of 70 included some fantastic sixes hit without any brute force but were true cricketing shots. He was supported well by Australian Luke Pomersbach and Saurabh Tiwary in the latter part of the innings. For Chennai Super Kings, Ravichandran Ashwin and Doug Bollinger kept the runs under check. Ashwin was hit on the face by a Sauravh Tiwary shot powerfully hit straight down the ground and was rushed immediately for an X-ray.

Chennai started badly losing two key wickets up-front to Zaheer Khan and Aravind. They were reduced to 7-2 and S. Badrinath was sent into steady the run rate. As it ultimately turned out, Chennai were scoring below 6.00 runs an over in the first six overs. However, Suresh Raina soon got the runs going.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni provided the required momentum and they scored commendably in the last 3 overs of tha game with the help of Albie Morkel. Suresh Raina pipped Virat Kohli in this battle of equals scoring a match winning innings of 73 and also earning the man of the match in the process.