With Kings XI Punjab's winning run ended on Saturday, the four qualifiers were finally decided. And deserving ones, too! The league stage's final day couldn't have been better planned. The last-four scrambled for places. With the semifinal-final system phased out, it was better to finish in the top two - you get two chances to make the final. First, Royal Challengers Bangalore hosted Chennai Super Kings for the top spot.
It was a lacklustre performance by the defending champs - the run rate seldom rose above five and wickets kept falling. Only the skipper Dhoni and second keeper Wriddhiman Saha even reached double figures. The first wicket fell with just seven on the board, and RCB never looked back. Even the usually reliable Badrinath fell cheaply, leaving the hitting work to Dhoni and the all-rounders. The captain hit seventeen runs from the last over to take the score to a moderate 128.
Though Ashwin removed AB de Villiers in the first over of the chase, Chris Gayle did the job for RCB (have we seen this somewhere before?), winning them the game by eight wickets by way of an unbeaten 75. The only other wicket was that of Virat Kohli.
Now CSK would have finished third had Kolkata Knight Riders won at home against Mumbai Indians, but a last-ball win for MI helped the 2010 finalist finish third and CSK come second.
Goswami and skipper Gambhir left early in the innings, but Jacques Kallis stabilised things for KKR. Tiwary, Yusuf and ten Doeschate chipped in to help KKR post a challenging 175.
Tirumalasetti Suman departed early. There was an interesting decision to send Harbhajan Singh to bat at No. 3, so that the better batsmen could be held back till the chase got hotter. It paid off - the off-spinner hit 30 off 29 balls. Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard's cheap wickets did not help the chase, but James Franklin hit an unbeaten 45 that earned him the Man of the Match award. The visitors needed 21 off the last over bowled by the expensive L. Balaji. Franklin hit four fours and a single. Ambati Rayudu needed to hit four runs off the last ball now. He hit a six and the MI team leapt out of the dugout and onto the field. It was a moment of joy - the MI team had finally regained thair form!
The play-offs promise to be as exciting. Great cricket, unfortunately there will only be one winner!
It was a lacklustre performance by the defending champs - the run rate seldom rose above five and wickets kept falling. Only the skipper Dhoni and second keeper Wriddhiman Saha even reached double figures. The first wicket fell with just seven on the board, and RCB never looked back. Even the usually reliable Badrinath fell cheaply, leaving the hitting work to Dhoni and the all-rounders. The captain hit seventeen runs from the last over to take the score to a moderate 128.
Though Ashwin removed AB de Villiers in the first over of the chase, Chris Gayle did the job for RCB (have we seen this somewhere before?), winning them the game by eight wickets by way of an unbeaten 75. The only other wicket was that of Virat Kohli.
Now CSK would have finished third had Kolkata Knight Riders won at home against Mumbai Indians, but a last-ball win for MI helped the 2010 finalist finish third and CSK come second.
Goswami and skipper Gambhir left early in the innings, but Jacques Kallis stabilised things for KKR. Tiwary, Yusuf and ten Doeschate chipped in to help KKR post a challenging 175.
Tirumalasetti Suman departed early. There was an interesting decision to send Harbhajan Singh to bat at No. 3, so that the better batsmen could be held back till the chase got hotter. It paid off - the off-spinner hit 30 off 29 balls. Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard's cheap wickets did not help the chase, but James Franklin hit an unbeaten 45 that earned him the Man of the Match award. The visitors needed 21 off the last over bowled by the expensive L. Balaji. Franklin hit four fours and a single. Ambati Rayudu needed to hit four runs off the last ball now. He hit a six and the MI team leapt out of the dugout and onto the field. It was a moment of joy - the MI team had finally regained thair form!
The play-offs promise to be as exciting. Great cricket, unfortunately there will only be one winner!
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