On May 31, 2008, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) defeated Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2008 second semi-final, played at the iconic Wankhede Stadium.
Batting first after winning the toss, Punjab saw themselves in immense trouble as they saw their main batters Kumar Sangakkara (three off four), captain Yuvraj Singh (four off eight), and Mahela Jayawardene (eight off 10) in the dugout with single-digit scores. Manpreet Gony got rid of Sangakkara and Yuvraj while Albie Morkel picked up Jayawardene’s scalp. Earlier, Makhaya Ntini got James Hopes (two off five) caught at the hands of wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel on the ninth delivery of the contest.
After Hopes, his opening ally and compatriot Shaun Marsh also became the victim of the Protea pacer. Nitini cleaned up Shaun and concluded the southpaw’s innings on 23 off 17. Riding on the knocks from Wilkin Mota (25 off 26) and Ramesh Powar (unbeaten 28 off 21), posted 112/8 in their 20 overs.
CSK top-order batters demolish downbeat Punjab’s bowling attack
Chasing the low target, lost Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan in the third over but Parthiv Patel and Suresh Raina didn’t give another chance to Yuvraj Singh’s team as both went on to smash half-centuries from their bats. Parthiv struck 51 off 48 while Raina notched up an unbeaten 55 off 34.
Riding on their innings, the Men in Yellow pulled off the target with nine wickets in hand and 31 balls to spare in the match. Ntini emerged as the Player of the Match (POTM) award for chipping in with his 2/23 figures in his four-over spell. With this win, MS Dhoni’s Chennai joined the Shane Warne-led Rajasthan Royals (RR) to play the first final of IPL held at the DY Patil Stadium.