Outstanding spin bowling from the Chennai Super Kings helped them secure their place in the IPL semi-finals.

Chennai team registered a comfortable 24-run victory over the 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.

Poor effort from Punjab

It was a poor effort from Punjab considering they themselves were in a must-win situation and things were looking bright for them after Shanthakumaran Sreesanth (two for 23) and Irfan Pathan (two for 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, in which 40 runs came in just under 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, followed by the wicket of MS Dhoni, clean bowled for two.

It's all about numbers

It left them at 70 for four at midway point, but when Wilkin Mota accounted for Raina (20), it left a big responsibility for the tail, who were easily rolled over with only Jacob Oram (17) managing double figures as his side totalled 116 for nine.

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 (two for eight) led to the departure of the former, bowled around his legs for eight, before the latter 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 (two for 17), the rest of the team easily folded with Ashwin and Thilan Thushara also claiming two wickets apiece.

Of the remaining batsmen, only Pathan (14) managed double figures as Punjab ended well short and must now wait for the remaining two games to be concluded tomorrow to learn whether they may be able to sneak into the semi-final courtesy of net run-rate.

Teams:

Chennai Super Kings: Sunny Sohal, Simon Katich, Luke Pomersbach, Yuvraj Singh (Capt), Kumar Sangakkara (Wk), Wilkin Mota, Irfan Pathan, Brett Lee, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar, Sreesanth.

Kings XI Punjab: Parthiv Patel, George Bailey, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (Capt/Wk), Subramaniam Badrinath, Jacob Oram, Ravichandran Ashwin, Manpreet Gony, Thilan Thushara, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Muttiah Muralidaran.

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