Chennai seal semi-final berth

Muttiah Muralitharan shone in Chennai's victory over Punjab, taking two wickets for just eight runs in four miserly overs

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Outstanding spin bowling from Chennai Super Kings helped them secure their place in the Indian Premier League semi-finals with a comfortable 24-run victory over Kings XI Punjab in Durban.

Defending a mediocre 117 for victory, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ravichandran Ashwin and Suresh Raina all impressed taking six wickets at a cost of just 38 runs to leave their opponents well short at the end on 92 for eight.

It was a poor effort from Punjab considering they themselves were in a must-win situation.

Things were looking bright for the Kings XI after Sri Sreesanth (2-23) and Irfan Pathan (2-32) helped restrict Chennai, who had only Parthiv Patel (32) amongst the runs.

The 2008 runners-up again opted to rest the tournament’s leading run-scorer Matthew Hayden, but his replacement George Bailey and Patel looked solid during their opening stand, which produced 40 runs in less than five overs.

But the Australian was excellently run out for 15 by Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh and his wicket seemed to stifle the momentum thereafter.

Twelve balls later Ramesh Powar sent in a quicker delivery that was clumsily played on by Patel ending his 23-ball stay, but Raina and Subramaniam Badrinath looked to consolidate, taking the score to 68 in the final over before the strategy break.

That was when Sreesanth came on for his third over and dealt a hammer blow to Chennai by enticing Badrinath (four) into a pull that was lobbed straight to Pathan.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni soon followed, clean bowled for two, to leave Chennai reeling at 70 for four.

When Wilkin Mota accounted for Raina (20), it left a big responsibility for the tail, but they were easily rolled over with only Jacob Oram (17) managing double figures.

In response, Punjab always looked in trouble, but, after the early loss of Sunny Sohal (three), they did momentarily threaten with Australian duo Simon Katich and Luke Pomersbach at the crease.

However, the introduction of Muralitharan (2-8) led to the departure of the Katich, bowled around his legs for eight, and Pomersbach followed in the 11th over when he edged the Sri Lankan to Raina at slip for 26.

Yuvraj looked out of sorts taking 19 balls for his six runs and after he was bowled by Raina (2-17), the rest of the team easily folded with Ashwin and Thilan Thushara also claiming two wickets apiece.

Punjab ended well short and are now almost certain to miss out on a place in the last four due to their poor net run-rate.