Chennai Super Kings are true royalty

Chennai reach third final in four years after Rainas unbeaten 73.

A forlorn Virat Kohli watched the ball sail over his head at deep midwicket. Some 60 metres away,Albie Morkel nearly overbalanced onto his stumps with the effort it took him to launch Daniel Vettori into the stands,but recovered and broke into a massive grin,stabbing the air with his upraised bat.

Even as the rest of his Royal Challengers Bangalore teammates converged to the middle to congratulate the victors,Kohli remained unmoved on the fence. He stared emptily for a good five seconds,pulled a towel out of his waistband,threw it aside,and kicked the air. The Bangalore lads unbeaten 44-ball 70 had powered his side to 175. But it wasnt enough to prevent the Chennai Super Kings from reaching their third IPL final in four seasons.

At the halfway point of their chase,Chennai were barely in the game. Suresh Rainas slog-swept six off Daniel Vettori off the last ball of the tenth over had,in fact,pushed their run rate above six an over for the first time in their innings. At that stage,they needed 114 from 60.

Sense of inevitability

But there has always been a sense of cold ruthlessness about the way the men in yellow have hunted down big targets. At Dharamsala last season,it had appeared almost inevitable that MS Dhoni would score those 16 Chennai needed from the last over to take them through to the semifinals. It was no different here.

When Zaheer Khan began his final over,Chennai required 58 from 24. Zaheers first spell,which read 3-0-11-1,had squeezed the brakes on the chase early on. This over would be critical,either way.

Raina,on 49,dumped the first ball over deep midwickets head. Two balls later,Dhoni swatted a full,straight delivery for another six. The skipper holed out to long on off the fourth ball,but Raina continued unfazed,rendering deep midwicket useless once more when he got back on strike. Twenty off that over had brought the equation down to 38 from 18.

The next over,bowled by the unflappable Chris Gayle,yielded only five. No matter. Even as Raina began cramping up,for the second time during the night,Albie Morkel took over,blasting Sreenath Aravind twice over his head for sixes in the penultimate over and clinically picking off the 12 required from the final over,bowled by Vettori.

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Not too long ago,the first qualifier had belonged entirely to Kohli. With R Ashwin winning round two of his personal battle with Chris Gayle,trapping him in front for eight one ball after the Jamaican left-hander had swatted him lazily over the leg side fence,the responsibility of constructing a big total fell on their vice-captains shoulders.

Kohli didnt disappoint. After a fairly sedate start,his take-off point came in the 19th over,bowled by Morkel. Kohli carved the second ball over points head for four to cross 50,and sent the next two soaring into the Wankhede galleries,one over long-on and one over deep extra cover with a disdainful flourish. On any other day,his knock would have taken Bangalore through. Instead,the champions will defend their title on their own turf on Saturday.