Riding on a gutsy innings of 73 runs by Suresh Raina, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) cruised into the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL) defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by six wickets in the qualifier match at the Wankhede Stadium here on Tuesday night .
Chasing RCB’s score of 175 for the loss of four wickets, current IPL champions CSK scored 177 runs for the loss of four wickets in a nerve cracking encounter
at the packed stadium.
CSK had a slow start to the innings, but after the first ten overs the Chennai outfit gained momentum and paced their innings with Badrinath and Raina hitting the ball clearly.
CSK had a horrible start to the innings as they lost both their openers Mike Hussey (0) and Suresh Raina (5) in quick succession. CSK scorecard showed seven runs for the loss of two wickets at that moment.
Raina and Badrinath tried to bring back CSK into the match with their fluent batting on Tuesday.
Badrinath (34), Dhoni (29) contributed well with the willow.
After their dismissals, Raina was joined into the crease by A. Morkel.
Morkel smashed the balls out side the park, scoring 28 runs from just 10 deliveries. He hit three over boundaries and a four in his innings,
Raina (73*) and Morkel helped CSK cruise into the final of IPL season four with their lusty batting.
Zaheer Khan took two wickets for RCB in this game.
RCB on the other hand had scored 175 runs for the loss of four wickets in their 20 overs.
Virat Kohli remained the highest scorer of RCB with his well made unbeaten 70 runs.
However, C. Gayle failed in this match as he scored only 8 runs.
RCB will now face the winner of the elimination match between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Mumbai Indians (MI) in the semi final.