Chennai surges ahead to the Final!

Mumbai: In an exciting and spine chilling match last evening, Chennai surged ahead to the final of T20 league. Excelling in all departments of the game, Chennai outplayed Mighty Punjab team on Saturday evening. Punjab lost miserably and Chennai will meet Rajasthan in final to be played at the D.Y. Patil Stadium on Sunday.

It has been an absorbing and engaging match viewed by millions. Cricket fans in thousands gathered to watch the absorbing semifinal. The match turned out to be one-sided and was dominated by Dhoni and team. The crowd had the pleasure of seeing bold and sparkling shots hit by the Chennai batsmen.

Punjab team failed miserably in front of Chennai team. Though Punjab was considered favorite for the match but Chennai over powered them easily. It was not a misfortune that befell the Punjab team. The poor selection of shots took heavy toll on the team. It was a virtual crawl for the Punjab side before the lower order hit out to take the score past the three figure mark and leave a target of 113.

Coming first for the batting, Punjab failed to make a massive total. Most of the batsmen failed to come up with good shots. Marsh was considered the best bet for Punjab but this was not his day. Marsh was out at a ball by impressive Ntini at 23. This was the most crucial wicket taken by Ntini that turned the result of the match up to a great extent. His exit was the beginning of the Mohali side losing control of its innings after it won the toss and elected to bat.

J. Hopes was another hope of Yuvraj Singh but he too succumbed under pressure and was out at Ntini’s another good ball at just 2. The Sri Lankan attacking batsman K. Sangakkara also failed in launching any considerable attack on Chennai. He was out at 3 off Gony.

Yuvraj Singh also met the same fate and proved miserable under pressure. He was sent back by Gony at 4 runs. So the fans missed the last chance to see some fine strokes by Yuvi in T20 league.

M. Jayawardene was a victim of Morkel and went back at 8. I. Pathan was much frustrated when he was run out at 3. W. Mota played some good shots and added 25 runs before going back off Morkel. P. Chawla was bowled at an extraordinary delivery by Muralitharan at 12 runs. R. Powar proved a bit useful as he was 28 not out. S. Sreesanth was not out at 0. This way whole team effort could garner only 112 runs in 20 overs.

On Chennai’s side the batting was superb and took the team to the final. Earlier they suffered a blow when Stephen Fleming’s replacement S.Vidyut fell in the third over, but Parthiv Patel and Suresh Raina were not going to let go this golden opportunity slip away.

They played sensible cricket, scored superb half centuries and made an easy win. The two left-handers are going into the final with this morale boosting undefeated 102 run stand. Patel went not out at 51 runs which also included very good shots. Raina made superb inning with his 55 runs. He was also not out. Vidyut added 6 runs and was out off Pathan.

This way Chennai made a fabulous 9 wickets victory over Punjab, in a well deserving manner. Now all the eyes are waiting for the final when the Dhoni team will meet the efficient team led by Warne. So lets wait for the real action to go live today evening!