In the last league match of the tournament, CSK defeated Kings XI Punjab by 5 wickets played at MCA Stadium, Pune. CSK captain MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to field first. The bowlers did a brilliant job to bowl out Kings XI Punjab for a modest total. While chasing, CSK struggled but Suresh Raina, Deepak Chahar played important knocks to help the hosts for a win.

Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to field first. Lungi Ngidi dismissed dangerous Chris Gayle for 0 runs in 2^nd over. Aaron Finch was also dismissed by Deepak Chahar for 4 runs. Lungi Ngidi got the big wicket of KL Rahul for 7 runs to push Kings XI Punjab batting line up under pressure. At end of 6 overs, Kings XI Punjab was struggling at 29 for 3.

After the power play overs, David Miller and Manoj Tiwary steadied the innings with good stroke play both batsmen. Both of them added 60 runs for the 4^th wicket before Manoj Tiwary was dismissed by Ravindra Jadeja for 35 runs. David Miller was also dismissed soon after for 24. Karun Nair and Axar Patel added 36 runs for the 6^th wicket. Axar Patel only contributed 14 runs.

Lungi Ngidi bowled a brilliant over dismissing R Ashwin and Andrew Tye in successive balls. Karun Nair played some lovely strokes to complete his half-century off 25 balls. He was dismissed for 54. Chennai Super Kings bowled out Kings XI Punjab for 153 in 19.4 overs. For CSK, Lungi Ngidi was the pick of bowlers with 4 for 10.

Needing to qualify, Punjab needed to stop Chennai Super Kings for 100 runs. Mohit Sharma got the big wicket of inform batsman Rayadu for 1 run.  Ankit Rajpoot dismissed Faf du Plessis and Sam Billings in successive deliveries. At the end of 6 overs, CSK scored 33 for 3.

Harbhajan Singh who came at the crease hit few big shots was dismissed for 19. Deepak Chahar also came ahead of MS Dhoni scored a quick fire 39 off 20 balls. Suresh Raina played slowly and then took on Kings XI Punjab bowlers. Raina completed his half-century off 45 balls while MS Dhoni remained not out on 16. CSK won the match by 5 wickets with 5 balls to spare.

For Kings XI Punjab, Ankit Rajpoot and R Ashwin picked 2 wickets each while Mohit Sharma picked 1. With this defeat, R Ashwin led side finished 7^th in the points table.

CSK 159 for 5 in 19.1 overs ( Raina 61*, Deepak Chahar 39, MS Dhoni 16*, Ankit Rajpoot 2/19, R Ashwin 2/36) beat

KXIP 153 in 19.4 overs ( Karun Nair 54, Manoj Tiwary 35, Lungi Ngidi 4/10) by 5 wickets.

KXIP captain R Ashwin said: We did not bat well in the first few overs as we lost too many wickets. Karun Nair batted well but we were 20-30 runs short. Ankit Rajpoot bowled brilliantly and conditions were used for fast bowlers. The way we played against Royal Challengers Bangalore cost us the momentum and pushed down our morale.

CSK captain MS Dhoni said: The pitch here had a swing. Chahar and Harbhajan Singh batted well. With the playoff stage coming up, need every player to have a hit. Lungi Ngidi was superb. Looking forward to the next round and hope that we can continue with the momentum.

Man of the match Lungi Ngidi said: A very good day out. The pitches in the subcontinent are slow and low, was happy to see the pitch green. MS Dhoni is one of the greatest cricketing brains. Hope to continue my form in the playoff stage.

With the league stage over, here we look at the playoff schedule

22^nd May (qualifier 1) – CSK versus SRH (Wankedhe Stadium, Mumbai)

23^rd May (Eliminator) – KKR versus RR (Eden Garden’s, Kolkata)

25^th May- Qualifier 2 (Eden Garden’s, Kolkata)

27^th May- Finals (Wankedhe Stadium, Mumbai).