Chennai Super Kings drubbed Kings XI Punjab by nine wickets in a lop-sided contest in Mumbai on Saturday night to storm into Sunday's Indian Premier League final against table toppers Rajasthan Royals.
After restricting the Punjab side to a meagre 112 for eight, the Chennai team romped home, riding on a second wicket stand of 102 runs between opener Parthiv Patel (51 off 48 balls) and Suresh Raina (55 off 34 balls) at the Wankhede Stadium.
The best chance for Kings XI, after putting up a pathetic batting display on winning the toss, was to strike a few early blows. They managed to dismiss opener S Vidyut cheaply for six to reduce Chennai to 14 for one, but then the left-handed combination of Patel and the more aggressive Raina took control of the proceedings.
They scored runs at a comfortable pace and raced past the finish line in 14.5 overs to complete a thumping victory.
Sunday's summit clash, for the top prize of US $1.2 million, between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, who had beaten Delhi Daredevils in equally comprehensive fashion by 105 runs in the first semi-final on Friday night, will be played at the D Y Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
Vidyut mistimed a pull off Irfan Pathan and offered a dolly catch to short mid-wicket to bring in Raina, included in the Indian ODI team for next month's Bangladesh tri-series and the subsequent Asia Cup.
The UP batsman carried on his good showing in the team's last league tie with some attacking shots in the company of only a slightly more sedate Patel, who hit eight fours, and the duo carried on merrily towards the victory target.
Raina smote four sixes on the way to a half century, one of them off James Hopes that went over the roof of the stadium, besides striking four fours to completely dominate the rival bowling attack.
Earlier, the Chennai pace attack ripped apart the strong Punjab top-order batting and restricted them to a paltry total.
Everything went wrong for Kings XI Punjab after captain Yuvraj Singh opted to bat first on winning the toss. Half their side was back in the dug-out with only 40 on the board on a seaming track.
Poor batting coupled with some good seam bowling undid the Punjab side.
Man of the match Makhaya Ntini and Manpreet Singh Gony rocked the high-flying Kings XI Punjab with a double strike each which reduced the Yuvraj Singh-led team to a pathetic 34 for four in the sixth over.
Ntini started the demolition when he had James Hopes caught behind chasing an outswinger for two in the second over.
Then Gony dismissed Kumar Sangakkara in similar fashion, caught by wicket keeper Parthiv Patel to leave Punjab at a shaky 2 for 11.
Things became grimmer when Kings XI Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh pulled Gony, who bowled an excellent four-over spell for figures of 2 for 14, straight to Muttiah Muralitharan at wide mid-on, which left them gasping at 28 for three.
But the biggest blow was when Ntini dismissed Punjab batting mainstay Marsh in his third over.
The left-handed opener from Western Australia attempted to pull a ball from wide of his stumps but only got an under-edge that crashed on to the stumps to the absolute delight of the Chennai Super Kings players.
Down in the dumps, Punjab lost Irfan Pathan in a horrible mix up with Mahela Jayawardene, who refused to respond to the former's call for a third run. The long throw from Ntini, who dived to stop a boundary, came handy to run out Irfan as he was stranded at mid-pitch.
Punjab, tottering at 40 for five after Pathan's dismissal, lost their sixth wicket when Jayawardene, with his poise upset at Pathan's run-out and open show of anger while walking back, tried to glide Albie Morkel and top-edged to Patel, who grabbed his third catch.
At 45 for six there was a possibility of Punjab doing worse than what Kolkata Knight Riders had done (67 all out; the lowest score of IPL) against Mumbai Indians at the same venue on May 16.
This was averted, with Wilkin Mota (25 off 26 balls) and Ramesh Powar (28 off 22 balls; 1X6; 4X4) leading the way by adding 35 runs for the eighth wicket.
The duo took advantage of a below-par performance by the Chennai team in the field to take the score close to 100 before Mota was out.
Powar helped boost the tally by creaming Balaji for three fours in the last over from which 14 runs were scored.
Ntini got 2 for 23 in his four overs bowled on the trot, Morkel ended up with 2 for 27 while Muralitharan, who bowled the first over of the innings, finished with 1 for 19.
