Chennai wins Champions League T20 title

JOHANNESBURG: Indian Premier League champions Chennai Super Kings thrashed Warriors by 8 wickets to win the Champions League Twenty20.

Muttiah Muralitharan snapped three wickets as Chennai Super Kings restricted Warriors to 128 for seven in the final of Champions League Twenty20 here today. Muralitharan, who took three for 16, got able support from his spin colleague Ravichandran Ashwin (2/16) as CSK restricted the Warriors to a meager total after the South African side elected to bat.

Pacers Dough Bollinger and Albie Morkel bagged a wicket each while Laxmipathy Balaji was unsuccessful. Warriors captain and opener Davy Jacobs (34) continued with his terrific form in the tournament with some lusty strokes and his side looked like to post a big total by racing to 39 runs at the end of the fourth over before they lost way later.

Jacobs treated CSK opening bowler Dough Bollinger with disdain hitting him for two consecutive fours and another two boundaries in the second over of the same bowler to give their innings to a flier. Jacobs also gave the same treatment to the other bowler Albie Morkel hitting him for three fours.

The other opening batsman Ashwell Prince, however, continued his struggling form as he was out to Bollinger for a mere six and Warriors score of 39 for one. CSK captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni''s shrewd move to introduce off-spinner Ashwin also paid dividends as he removed the dangerous-looking Jacobs in the sixth over as the IPL side put brakes on the South African champion team.

Jacobs'' aggressive 34 came from 21 balls and was studded with eight fours. Run rate slowed down with the introduction of Balaji, who got a bit of swing from the Wanderers pitch, and spin wizard Muralitharan as Warriors scored just 19 runs from the four overs from seventh to 10th.

Colin Ingram (16) fell victim to Morkel in the 11th over while trying to push up the run rate before Muralitharan put the Warriors in trouble by claiming two wickets in the 14th over. Veteran Mark Boucher (5) was deceived by a beautiful Muralitharan delivery which got the turn to beat the batsman''s bat before crashing into the stumps.

Four balls later, Justin Kreusch (17) charged out to hit a Muralitharan delivery only to chip it to Suresh Raina at mid-wicket and Warriors were 82 for five then. In the 17th over, Craig Thyssen took 18 runs from Balaji with the help of a six and a four but any threat of death over run riot was cut short with Ashwin snapping Johan Botha''s wicket.

Thyssen was the only other Warriors batsman besides Jacobs to give some resistance to the CSK bowlers with a 18-ball 25 which he made with the help of three fours and a a six before being out in the last over.