Mumbai, May 22 (UNI) Faf du Plessis brillant unbeaten half century 67 off 42 helped CSK reach the finals of the Qualifier 1 match, beating SRH by 2 wickets in the 11th edition of IPL here at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday.
CSK who needed 6 runs in the final over, it was Plessis who hit a six in Kumra's spell in the first ball of the last over taking CSK towards victory.
Chasing a low total of 139/7 set by the SRH an a target of 140 runs to make to the finals.
CSK too fumbled with its opening batsman and all-rounder Shane Watson was sent to the pavillion without scoring a run after facing 5 balls caught by Goswami in Bhuvneshwar Kumar's bowl.
CSK started to show signs of struggle with their batting line-up against SRH's bowling after Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu's wicket fell in the same over of the 4th over.
Raina's 22 off 13 was a good effort, but was bowled by kaul. He hit 4 fours while Rayudu too went down to Kaul without scoring a run after facing one ball.
Skipper MS Dhoni too was not at his best form and chipped in 9 off 18 hitting one four before being dismissed by Rashid Khan in 8th over.
Same as SRH CSK's wicket also kept falling at regular intervals.
After Raina none of the batsman contributed from their side.
With Dhoni's departure it was now turn of Bravo who was caught by Dhawan bowled by Rashid Khan in the 12th over. Bravo's 7 off 11.
Then Jadeja in 13th over, Chahar 15th and Harbhajan Singh in 18th over all of them failed to stick to the wicket and lost their wickets.
Thakur too remained unbeaten and chipped in 15 off 5 hitting 3 fours.
However, it was Faf du Plessis magnificent half century that took CSK towards victory in the end hitting a winning six in the first bowl of the last over in Kumar's spell taking then to the finals on May 27 here at the wankhede stadium.
For SRH it was Rashid Khan's 2/11 with best of 2.75 of economy rate, while Kaul and Sandeep Sharma bagged two wickets each while Bhuvneshwar Kumar took one wicket.
CSK won the toss and elected to field first allowing SRH to bat.
However it was due to Brathwaite's who remained unbeaten and rescued his team emerging the top scorer blasting 43 off 29 hitting one four and 4 sixes.
SRH received a major jolt in the very first over of the first ball when opener Shikhar Dhawan fell victim to Chahar without scoring a run.
After Dhawan Goswami tried to pace the innings, but then he too after scoring 12 off 9 balls lost his wicket after being caught and bowled by Lungi Ngidi in the 4th over. Goswami hit 2 fours.
CSK bowlers didn't allow SRH batters to settle and wickets kept falling at regular intervals as now it was turn of skipper Williamson as Dhoni caught him behind the stumps in the 5th over in Thakur's spell.
Williamson's 24 came off in 15 balls hitting 4 fours.
With Williamson's departure Shakib Al Hasan buckled under pressure and scored 12 off 10 hit 2 fours caught off behind stumps by Dhoni in Bravo's bowl.
Then came Manish Pandey he scored just 8 off 16 balls caught and bowled by Jadeja in the 12th over.
Yusuf Pathan managed to contribute a useful 24 off 29 balls hit 3 fours before being caught and bowled by Bravo in the 15th over.
However, in the last over of the last ball Bhuvneshwar Kumar was run out by Dhoni.
Bhuvneshwar scored 7 off 11 balls.
For CSK Bravo's 2/25 while Chahar, Ngidi, Thakur and Jadeja scalped one wickets each.
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