Chennai Super Kings beat Deccan Chargers by seven wickets in their Indian Premier League match in Hyderabad on Tuesday to book the final berth in the semi-finals.
Chennai's win ended the hopes of the Mumbai Indians of making it to the last four.
The win, Chennai's eighth in 14 matches, moved them up to third in the table on 16 points, one ahead of Delhi (15). The Hyderabad team, meanwhile, lost for the 12th time in 14 matches and finished with the wooden spoon.
Chasing 148 to win, Chennai lost openers Parthiv Patel (20) and Stephen Fleming (14) by the ninth over but thereafter captain Mahendra Shingh Dhoni (37 of 25 balls) came into the crease and helped Suresh Raina (54 not out) put on 56 runs for the third wicket, a partnership that steadied the Chennai ship.
Dhoni was dismissed by Pragyan Ojha but Albie Morkel (12 not out) and Raina saw their team home with four balls to spare.
Earlier, a heroic 76-run fourth-wicket partnership between Y Venugopal Rao and D Ravi Teja propelled Deccan Chargers to 147 for eight.
Rao (46) and Teja (40) joined hands when their team was stuttering at 57 for three, after deciding to bat on a good batting pitch.
Only Rao and Teja batted with guile and grit as all other batsmen struggled to find rhythm and big hitters like Herschelle Gibbs (8) and Shahid Afridi (1) disappointed once again.
Rao's 46-ball knock, which included three fours and one six, was mixture of aggression and caution while Teja was furious right from the word go. Teja hit four fours and a six in his 28-ball knock.
Once the duo departed, the hosts wickets fell one after another as they crumbled under pressure of putting up a big total.
Gibbs found it tough to negotiate a disciplined pace attack on a bouncy wicket and eventually departed while trying to break the shackles.
The South African slashed one off compatriot Makhaya Ntitni over the point region but only managed a thick edge which was accepted gleefully by L Balaji at third-man.
Skipper Adam Gilchrist (5) perished in the same way when he tried to loft a good length delivery by Manpreet Gony and just managed an outside edge, which flew to third man Abhinav Mukund.
Runs were tough to come from the blade as first five overs fetched just 18 runs and that too at the cost of two wickets.
Rao and Scott Styris (20) then steadied the rocking boat by weaving a 39-run stand for the third wicket before the latter was undone by Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan.
Styris, who played some good shots in his short knock, gave charge to Muralitharan but missed the line completely and was bowled by Sri Lankan.
All the bowlers from the visiting side kept a tight line until Balaji was hit for 14 runs in the 14th over, which also witnessed first six of the innings.
Albie Morkel and Balaji took two-wickets each while Ntini, Goni and Muralitharan claimed one wicket each.
Chennai team needs to win the match to seal the last semifinal spot in the tournament while the hosts now would try to win their first match at home.
