Chennai: Sohail Tanvir bowled a sensational final over as Jaipur waved off a strong Chennai challenge to notch up a 10-run victory at the MA Chidambaram stadium here on Saturday.
The Pakistan fast bowler took two wickets including the dangerous Albie Morkel as Chennai were unable to pull off a victory in a game that never pronounced a favourite till the very end.
Morkel, the South African left-hander, threatened to take the game away with a blistering 71 from 40 balls that had six fours and four sixes, but Chennai fell apart with the early fall of captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (12) and a bevy of wickets.
Chennai, who still need another victory to seal their spot in the semi-finals, suffered an early setback chasing 212 with the fall of Stephen Fleming, but recovered with a brilliant counterattacking partnership between Parthiv Patel and Suresh Raina, as Jaipur captain Shane Warne's ploy of opening with spinner Yusuf Pathan flopped.
Raina clobbered a majestic 24-ball 45 that dominated the second wicket stand of 70 before captain Shane Warne brought about the breakthrough in the ninth over. But Chennai recovered fast with Albie Morkel and Patel taking the attack to the Jaipur bowlers.
Patel brought up a fluent half-century but departed after adding four more runs, out stumped to Warne, but Morkel continued the charge until the introduction of Tanvir sparked a collapse.
Earlier, Graeme Smith, joint man of the match with Morkel, plundered 91 from just 51 balls and put on 127 for the opening partnership with Swapnil Asnodkar as Jaipur powered their way to 211-5.
Jaipur, who have already qualified for the semi-finals of the inaugural Indian Premier League, got off to a rollicking start after captain Shane Warne elected to bat in the day/night fixture.
Smith and Asnodkar (41) flayed the Chennai bowlers to all parts of the ground as the openers raced away to 50 inside five overs and brought up the century stand in 9.4 overs, before a run out ended the partnership.
Smith hit his fourth six of the match off Suresh Raina to get into the nineties but fell the next ball, becoming only the second batsman to get out in the nineties after Sourav Ganguly (94 vs Hyderabad).
Wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal took over the reins after a brief stutter in the proceedings, hammering an unbeaten 53 in just 28 deliveries.
Albie Morkel was the most successful of the Chennai bowlers, taking two wickets for 35 while Laxmipathy Balaji went for 45 runs in three overs being the most expensive of the lot.
Jaipur rested Siddarth Trivedi, Mahesh Rawat, Shane Watson and Ravindra Jadeja and brought in Taruwar Kohli, Dinesh Salunkhe, Kamran Akmal and Pankaj Singh in their place.
Chennai, who need one victory to make it to the semi-finals, made only one change from their last match squad with Abhinav Mukund replacing S Vidyut.
The teams:
Chennai: Mahendra Dhoni (capt), Stephen Fleming, Parthiv Patel, Suresh Raina, S. Badrinath, Albie Morkel, Abhinav Mukund, Manpreet Gony, Laxmipathy Balaji, Muttiah Muralitharan, Makhaya Ntini.
Jaipur: Shane Warne (capt), Graeme Smith, Swapnil Asnodkar, Kamran Akmal, Mohd. Kaif, Yusuf Pathan, Taruwar Kohli, Dinesh Salunkhe, Sohail Tanvir, Pankaj Singh, Munaf Patel.
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