Kings XI Punjab effectively crashed out of The IPL after falling to a 24-run defeat to Chennai Super Kings in Durban.
CLICK HERE FOR THE SCORECARD
Chennai were assured of a place in the semi-finals coming into the game and batted like that was the case as they made just 116 from their 20 overs.
It looked an attainable target for Punjab, but they approached the chase like a side devoid of a gameplan and came up short.
Kings XI are not mathematically out of the tournament, but Bangalore would have to suffer a huge loss to Deccan on Thursday to progress.
Chennai made a bright start after deciding to bat first, as George Bailey and Parthiv Patel found the boundary at regular intervals before the former was run out by Yuvraj Singh going for a quick single.
Patel made his way to 32 from 23 balls before being deceived by a superb arm ball from Romesh Powar.
Chennai looked well placed heading into the final over before the strategy break, but Sree Sreesanth produced some magic – getting rid of Badrinath who failed to control a hook shot and then sent India skipper MS Dhoni’s stumps flailing with an inswinging yorker.
It was clear the wicket of Dhoni meant an awful lot to Sreesanth as he embarked on a lap of honour that would not have been out of place in the celebrations for IPL glory.
The dismissal of Dhoni saw the momentum of the Chennai innings stall, Jacob Oram failed to cash in on a life given to him by the third umpire when he should have been given run out but the decision went the batsman’s way despite it appearing that Powar had taken the bails off cleanly.
Oram was caught and bowled by Pathan for 17 and excellent bowling from Kings XI, with Brett Lee coming back with a fiery couple of overs at the death, restricted Chennai to 116/9.
Rather like the game earlier in the day, Kings XI made a poor start to chasing down a mediocre target as Sonny Sohal gloved a short ball off Thushara to the keeper.
Simon Katich played one decent cut for four, but went into his shell once Muttiah Muralitharan came into the attack and paid the price when the Sri Lankan bowled him round his legs.
Luke Pomersbach did not look comfortable despite making 26 and he edged a catch to slip off Muralithran and Raina took the catch.
Yuvraj has been badly out of touch in recent days and he played all round a straight one from Raina when attempting to up the rate and lost his leg stump.
Muralitaharan’s fantastic spell of 2-8 from 4 overs piled pressure on the middle and lower order and they found the task of chasing down over 9 per over for the last 7 overs beyond them.
Wickets fell regularly to the spinners and Kings XI came up a hugely disappointing 24 runs short as they were restricted to 92/8.
All the IPL action is live on Setanta Sports, while ball-by-ball coverage will be provided by setanta.com. Click here for details on how to subscribe to Setanta Sports on Satellite, Freeview and Setanta-i.
Our IPL coverage is in association with Lebara for low-cost, high quality UK & International calls from your mobile.
