June 02, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 27, 1429

MUMBAI, June 1: Mohali’s Kings XI Punjab previous defeats to Chennai Super Kings appeared of no consequence in the second Indian Premier League semi-final at the Wankhede Stadium here on Saturday as Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men came prepared.

When the two sides met again, Mohali’s set of Kings had no answer to their Chennai counterparts, as they fell apart for just 112-8 before Dhoni’s side mopped up the runs to canter to a nine-wicket win and set up a clash with Jaipur’s Rajasthan Royals in the final on Sunday.

Manpreet Gony, Chennai’s most successful bowler in the IPL, was splendid throughout his four-over spell, bagging two wickets at the expense of 14 runs, while Ntini jolted Mohali from the other end with a relentless 2-23.

Muttiah Muralitharan’s four overs went for a frugal 19 and a wicket before the left-handed duo of Parthiv Patel (51 not out) and Suresh Raina (55 not out) avoided any repeat of the scenes against Bangalore Royal Challengers when they suffered a dramatic collapse, striking up a 102-run partnership as Chennai Super Kings got home with 5.1 overs to spare.

Jaipur’s inspirational showing with the bat in the first semi-final had influenced both skippers enough with what they had in mind on winning the toss. Yuvraj Singh turned out to be the unfortunate one.

The formidable Kings XI Punjab batting line-up was ripped to shreds as they were reduced to 34-4 inside the powerplay before slumping further to 45-6 inside 10 overs, and a top six which only had one reaching double figures.

Ramesh Powar, batting at No 9, was their top-scorer with an unbeaten 28.

Kings XI Punjab safely negotiated the first over after Dhoni chose to throw the ball to Muralitharan to unsettle the Australian opening duo of Shaun Marsh and James Hopes.

However, the storm came from the other end, as Ntini snared Hopes to a wild swipe outside off, before Gony’s double-strike ensured Kings XI’s No 2, 3 and 4 fell for exactly those numbers.

Marsh’s golden run in the tournament came to an end when he played on to his stumps off Gony, while a farcical mix-up with Mahela Jayawardene ended Irfan Pathan’s stay.

Scoreboard

KINGS XI PUNJAB:

S.E. Marsh b Ntini 23

J.R. Hopes c Patel b Ntini 2

K.C. Sangakkara c Patel b Gony 3

Yuvraj Singh c Murali b Gony 4

D.P.M.D. Jayawardene c Patel b Morkel 8

I.K. Pathan run out 3

W.A. Mota c Raina b Morkel 25

Piyush Chawla b Murali 12

R.R. Powar not out 28

S. Sreesanth not out 0

EXTRAS (B-2, W-2) 4

TOTAL (for eight wkts, 20 overs) 112

FALL OF WKTS: 1-8, 2-11, 3-28, 4-34, 5-40, 6-45, 7-63, 8-98.

DID NOT BAT: V.R.V. Singh.

BOWLING: Ntini 4-0-23-2; Gony 4-1-14-2 (1w); Muralitharan 4-0-19-1 (1w); Morkel 4-0-27-2; Balaji 4-0-27-0.

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS:

P.A. Patel not out 51

S. Vidyut c Mota b Pathan 6

S.K. Raina not out 55

EXTRAS (W-4) 4

TOTAL (for one wkt, 14.5 overs) 116

FALL OF WKT: 1-14.

DID NOT BAT: M.S. Dhoni, C.K. Kapugedera, S. Badrinath, J.A. Morkel, M. Gony, L. Balaji, M. Muralitharan, M. Ntini.

BOWLING: Pathan 4-0-24-1 (2w); Sreesanth 1-0-7-0 (1w); Powar 3-0-28-0 (1w); V.R.V. Singh 2-0-14-0; Hopes 2-0-20-0; Chawla 2.5-0-23-0.

RESULT: Chennai Super Kings won by nine wickets.

UMPIRES: Asad Rauf (Pakistan) and D.J. Harper (Australia).

TV UMPIRE: K. Hariharan (India).

MATCH REFEREE: S. Venkataraghavan (India).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Makhaya Ntini.

—Agencies