Dhoni blasts Chennai to semi-finals
A pumped-up MS Dhoni again showed why he's one of the great finishers in the game to make Chennai Super Kings the only team to reach the semi-finals of each IPL so far
A pumped-up MS Dhoni again showed why he's one of the great finishers in the game to make Chennai Super Kings the only team to reach the semi-finals of each IPL so far
That's the side of Dhoni I have not seen before. He has won matches way bigger than this. But as he says, it was an emotional moment for him to win this one. That's all we have. Hop over to the other tab to follow the other game between Delhi and Deccan. Cheers
Presentation
MS Dhoni is the Man of the Match He says, "It's a tough game, you can't always perform, but if you perform in big games, you get that tag of being the pressure player. But the fact is, Raina and Badri set the chase up. It was an emotional moment. Your franchise pays so much money for you, you should at least make the semi-finals. After that you can say it is a lottery. The kind of franchise we have got, the kind of team we have, we should have made it to the semi-finals before this game. So it was an emotional moment, at least for me."
Kumar Sangakkara "We needed to get our yorkers right, but wasn't to be. Boys worked hard, but couldn't close it off. We have had patches of great batting, great bowling, bad bowling, bad batting. That kind of season. It's been a privilege to play for Kings XI Punjab, a privilege to play in front of these crowds."
Chennai will think they have righted a major mistake they committed. They had no business losing to Punjab in the first match, which put them in this must-win situation originally. This time, Punjab played much better, and kept it close, but they were poor in the last two overs of length bowling. And these were not yorkers gone wrong, these were bowlers who didn't seem to posses the yorker. And better bowlers have been hurt by bowling length to MSD. Chennai will now face the winner of the match between Delhi and Decan later tonight.
Third man and fine leg both inside the circle. Slower ball coming up?
16 required off the last over. Dhoni on strike. Irfan, who dropped Morkel, to bowl now
Tom Moody, Punjab's coach, gave credit to Chennai for staying strong even though Punjab were in control till the 18th over
Plays of the day from the match between Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings in Dharamsala
Chennai had been in tight spots earlier in the competition and failed to hang on. Tonight, in a do-or-die match, they emerged trumps thanks to the sheer gall of their most valuable asset