Chennai Super Kings, looking far from convincing, still carried enough firepower to get past Perth Scorchers by 13 runs Saturday to book a berth in the semi-finals of the Oppo Champions League T20 tournament.
Bangalore: A disciplined Chennai Super Kings tonight produced an all-round effort to defeat Perth Scorchers by 13 runs to virtually book a semifinal berth in the Oppo Champions League Twenty20, here.
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The victory, their second in four matches, took Super Kings tally to 10 as they finished behind Kolkata Knight Riders in Group A while Scorchers remained on four from three outings and in third behind Lahore Lions who earlier beat cellar-dwellers Dolphins by 16 runs.
Invited to bat, the Super Kings rode on Ravindra Jadeja's 28-ball unbeaten 44 and Mahendra Singh Dhoni's 16-ball 35 to post a challenging 155 for six.
Ravichandran Ashwin then shone with the ball, returning impressive figures of 3/20 to restrict the Scorchers to 142
for seven in 20 overs.
That the CSK got enough to defend was mainly due to the brisk 64-run sixth-wicket partnership, which came off just 30
balls, between Jadeja and Dhoni. This after the Scorchers spinners, led by Brad Hogg, had stifled the two-time IPL
winners at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
But the complexion changed once Dhoni smashed Yasir Arafat for 27 runs with the help of three sixes in the
penultimate over of Super Kings' innings.
While the CSK skipper got out while going for another maximum in the final over, which also ended his crucial
association with Jadeja, the left-handed all-rounder hit a six and a four to finish things off in style for the Super
Kings.
Dhoni hit four sixes while Jadeja found the fence four times and cleared it twice.
When their turn to bat came, the Scorchers lost Craig Simmons and Ashton Agar with 26 runs on the board. While
Simmons was foxed by Ashish Nehra's slower ball, Agar had no answer to a quicker one from Ashwin.
Captain Adam Voges and Mitchell Marsh put up a brief resistance before the latter was castled by off-spinner Ashwin. Sam Whiteman did not last long while Voges too fell after making 27 off 24 balls.
At the start of 17th over, the Scorchers needed 58 off 24, but Nathan Coulter-Nile and Ashton Turner reduced the
margin to 44 in the last three. Just after completing a 33-ball sixth-wicket 50-run partnership with Coulter-Nile, Turner was run out due to Dhoni's smart work, putting to rest whatever little hopes Scorchers had of pulling off a shock win.
The Australian outfit is more or less out of contention.
Brief scores:
Chennai Super Kings: 155 for 6 in 20 overs (Dwayne Bravo 27, Ravindra Jadeja 44 not out, Mahendra Singh Dhoni 35) Perth Scorchers: 142 for 7 in 20 overs (Nathan Coulter-Nile 30, Mitchell Marsh 19)
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