Doug Bollinger starred with four for 13 as Chennai knocked out Hyderabad in the second semi-final of the Indian Premier League.
Chennai secured a 38-run victory over the defending champions to progress to Sunday's final against Mumbai at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai.
Victory had looked unlikely for Chennai as they suffered a horror start, but a half-century stand between Subramaniam Badrinath (37) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (30) and a cameo from Srikkanth Anirudha (24) helped them to a modest 142 for seven.
Fast bowler Bollinger then turned in an outstanding performance and was nicely supported by spinners Ravichandran Ashwin, Muttiah Muralitharan and Shadab Jakati as Hyderabad were bowled out for a paltry 104 in 19.2 overs.
Chennai had opted to bat first but Ryan Harris, who shared the new ball with Andrew Symonds, destroyed their top order with an excellent spell at the start and exposed their shallow batting resources.
Hyderabad were initially shabby in the field and Matthew Hayden was dropped twice before Symonds grasped a good catch to send the opener back in Harris' first over.
Harris then trapped Murali Vijay in front in his next over and Symonds had Suresh Raina - also reprieved before he could get off the mark - caught behind to leave Chennai reeling at 29 for three.
Dhoni and Badrinath steadied the innings with a 52-run stand, but it was hard work with many of those runs accumulated in ones and twos.
Dhoni then fell attempting to slash a delivery from Harmeet Singh but only finding Rohit Sharma at slip, and when Albie Morkel departed at the end of the 15th over, Chennai were left with only one recognised batsman in Badrinath at the crease.
He forged on until the start of the 18th over when he was run out by Adam Gilchrist, but Anirudha smashed two fours and two sixes at the end to give the total a decent look.
Chennai, however, were terrific with the ball and excellent in the field and soon had Hyderabad under pressure.
Off-spinner Ashwin conceded just one with the new ball and when Bollinger began with a maiden Hyderabad were beginning to feel the heat.
Bollinger then inflicted a double blow by removing both Gilchrist and his replacement Tirumalasetti Suman in his third over, Morkel caused more damage by removing Rohit in his first over and left-arm spinner Jakati crippled Hyderabad by snaring Herschelle Gibbs and Monish Mishra in successive overs.
By then, the required run rate - just over seven at the start of the chase - had ballooned to 10 per over at the halfway stage.
Symonds (23) had held out hope with a patient innings, but when he holed out to Vijay at deep midwicket in the 16th over Hyderabad were out of the reckoning.
Hyderabad will now play BLACKCAP Ross Taylor’s Bangalore in the 3rd v 4th playoff with the winner securing a finals berth in the Champions League.
Teams
Chennai: ML Hayden, M Vijay, SK Raina, MS Dhoni, JA Morkel, S Badrinath, S Anirudha, R Ashwin, SB Jakati, DE Bollinger, M Muralitharan
Hyderabad: AC Gilchrist, HH Gibbs, MD Mishra, RG Sharma, A Symonds, TL Suman, B Sumanth, PP Ojha, RJ Harris, Harmeet Singh, RP Singh
Courtesy of http://www.espnstar.com
