KKR clinch maiden title

At the halfway mark of the IPL final the balance certainly tilted towards Chennai Super Kings, who were playing for a hattrick of titles and had put on a massive total of 190-3 before their home crowd at the MA Chidambaram Stadium yesterday.

Their opponents Kolkata Knight Riders were up against history when they started their chase of 191, a score they have not scored in this year's IPL so far. However, at the end of a pulsating finale the Knight Riders were crowned as the new champions of the glitzy multi-million dollar tournament when they reached the summit with two balls to spare and five wickets in hand.

Opener Bisla preserved the best for the last, hitting a blistering 89 off 48 balls that contained eight fours and five sixes. Jacques Kallis, who played the sheet anchor role after Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir (2) departed in the second over, took his side close to victory with an imperious 69 off 49 balls.

But still the Knight Riders needed a small but very significant contribution from Bangladesh's champion all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan to win their maiden IPL title. After taking a magnificent diving catch and bowling the last over like a man possessed during the Chennai innings, the left-hander struck a crucial boundary a scoop over fine leg in the penultimate over that left Kolkata with an easy task of scoring nine runs from the last six balls. Knight Riders' fans in India and Shakib's 17 million followers in Bangladesh erupted into joy when Munjo Tiwari hit Dwayne Bravo for successive fours down to the square leg boundary.

Earlier, it appeared to be a similar tale for Chennai in their third straight playoff match that put them in prime position for their third consecutive IPL title. After MS Dhoni and M Vijay, it was the turn of Suresh Raina to pull off a blinder. He walked in with Super Kings already in a position of strength, with Michael Hussey (54) and M Vijay (42) clicking again, and proceeded to pulverise the best of the Kolkata Knight Riders bowlers.

Mystery bowler Sunil Narine looked ordinary in the face of Raina onslaught. The left-hander struck 73 off only 38 balls with the help of three fours and five sixes. Brett Lee was swiped over midwicket on his way to figures of 4-0-42-0, nullifying the decision to include him and provide additional firepower to the Knight Riders attack.

But eventually it made little or no difference for the class of 2012.