IPL 2019: Defending champions Chennai defeat Delhi to storm into final

Defending champions defeated Delhi by six wickets in the Qualifier 2 of Indian Premier League 2019 to set up the summit clash of the season against Mumbai team.

Chasing a total of 148 to win, Chennai openers Shane Watson and Fad du Plessis scored half-centuries to give their side a stable start.

Dwayne Bravo scored the winning runs at Visakhapatnam's ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium and Chennai will play the final match on May 12.

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Du Plessis scored his third half-century in this season of IPL before Trent Boult got hold of him in the 11th over.

Soon after scoring his second half-century in this season, Watson (50) gave away his wicket.

Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu then came out to bat but Raina too gave away his wicket after scoring just 11 runs.

After Raina's dismissal, skipper Dhoni took the field. Rayudu and Dhoni played steadily and added another 19 runs on the scoreboard.

However, in the 19th over, Dhoni tried to finish off the match by hitting a six but gave away an easy catch to Keemo Paul off Ishant Sharma delivery.

Dwayne Bravo then joined Rayudu and both took their side over the line to register a six-wicket victory.

Earlier, MS Dhoni-led Chennai dished out a clinical bowling effort to restrict Delhi to 147 for nine.

Dwayne Bravo (2/19), Ravindra Jadeja (2/23), Deepak Chahar (2/28) and Harbhajan Singh (2/31) shared eight wickets between them to keep Delhi in check after opting to bowl.

Sent into bat, Delhi made a shaky start with Prithvi Shaw (5) and Shikhar Dhawan (18 off 14) adding 21 runs in 2.3 overs before the former was caught plumb in front of the wicket by Chahar.

Shaw's dismissal opened the floodgates as Delhi lost three wickets in quick time to slump to 75 for four in 11.3 overs.

Dhawan was the next to depart, caught by Mahendra Singh Dhoni off Harbhajan and then Colin Munro (27) was holed at deep square-leg by Bravo off Jadeja as the South African went for a slog sweep.

Skipper Shreyas Iyer (13 of 18) tried to anchor the innings but he too fell while going for a big shot, caught by Suresh Raina off Imran Tahir (1/28) in the 12th over.

To make matters worse for Delhi, new man in Axar Patel departed in the next over, hitting a short delivery of Bravo straight to Tahir at third man.

Rishabh Pant (38 off 25) and Sherfane Rutherford (10) shared 22 runs for the sixth wicket but Chennai didn't allow the Delhi outfit to get any momentum, picking up wickets at regular intervals to rattle their innings.

Rutherford became Harbhajan's second victim, followed by Keemo Paul who was cleaned up by Bravo's perfect yorker in the 18th over.

The onus was on hard-hitting Pant to take Delhi to a challenging total but he too failed to cope up with the pressure, caught by Bravo at long-on off Chahar.

Towards the end, Amit Mishra (6 not out) and Ishant Sharma (10 not out off 3 balls) used their long handles to great effect and struck some lusty blows to take the Delhi side close to the 150-run mark.