Super Kings secure big win in run-fest

Chennai Super Kings 242 for 6 (Raina 90, McCullum 49, Jadeja 40*) beat Dolphins 188 (Chetty 38, Mohit 4-41, Bravo 2-17) by 54 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

A stunning 43-ball 90 from Suresh Raina was the cornerstone of Chennai Super Kings' 54-run win over Dolphins in Bangalore but the contest, at least for the early part of the Dolphins chase, was far more closely matched than the eventual victory margin suggested.

Dolphins captain Morne van Wyk had opted to bowl and said his decision had been influenced by the reputation the Chinnaswamy Stadium had for aiding sides batting second. For 20 overs of Super Kings' innings, however, van Wyk could only watch from behind the stumps as Raina, Brendon McCullum, Faf du Plessis and Ravindra Jadeja plundered runs at will, powering Super Kings to 242 for 6.

The Dolphins response was equally explosive at the start. Van Wyk and Cameron Delport raised the side's 50 in 15 balls. By the end of the Powerplay, Dolphins had raced to 85 for 2, bettering the CLT20 record set by Super Kings earlier in the day. As is typical in big chases, the breakthroughs came when the Dolphins batsmen kept playing for the big shots, but they were also left to rue a poor decision from umpire K Srinath, who adjudged Van Wyk lbw when a ball from R Ashwin had pitched several inches outside leg stump. The dismissal came in an over where the Dolphins captain had smacked two fours and a six off the bowler.

After van Wyk was dismissed, Dolphins' hopes rested on Delport who swung and swiped his way to a nine-ball 34. All but two of the deliveries he faced had raced to the boundary and his bustling innings had threatened to play out the same way as Andre Russell's a few days ago before Mohit Sharma ended it with a slower ball.

After Delport was out, the pressure of keeping pace with a spiraling asking rate was squarely on Cody Chetty. He tried with a gamely 37 off 28 balls but his dismissal gave Super Kings an opening to stifle the scoring rate for a couple of overs and the bowlers responded. The target left Dolphins with no room for quiet overs and when those did come, especially during Bravo's tight spell filled with variations of slower balls, whatever little hope they had left slipped away quickly.

In sharp contrast, unburdened by a target hanging over them, the Super Kings innings motored along at top speed. MS Dhoni had some concerns at the toss about how the track would behave due to the presence of a few patches but there was little to worry about for Super Kings once they began. After Dwayne Smith fell early to the left-arm spin of Keshav Maharaj, Raina and McCullum set about dismantling the Dolphins attack, matching each other almost stroke for stroke during a relentless 91-run stand that came off 45 balls.

The Dolphin pacers, including Kyle Abbott, had few answers to the fearsome shots McCullum unleashed either side of the wicket, harking back in some ways to the whirlwind century he played during the first game of the Indian Premier League.

The pair led Super Kings to the second-best Powerplay score of the season, smashing 70 in the first six overs. Raina got off the mark with a four and after that, kept carving out sixes effortlessly. The scoring rate barely suffered a hiccup when McCullum was out for 49 - caught at deep midwicket off a mis-timed shot - as Raina took over the lead role. He marched to a fifty off 27 balls and in a third-wicket partnership of 65 with du Plessis, contributed 53 runs.

The gaps between the landmarks showed how effectively Super Kings had negated the Dolphins attack as the side progressed to 50 to 100 and 150 in 25, 28 and 26 balls, respectively. Sixty-four of Raina's 90 runs came in boundaries and by the time his top edge settled in Delport's hands at point, Raina had become the first Indian batsman to move past 5000 runs in T20s and was one short of 200 sixes in the format.

Dolphins' relief over quick wickets at the end was also short-lived as Jadeja smashed 40 off 14 balls to produce a big flourish. Abbott came back and bowled a couple of quiet overs but by then the total had swelled to 242, equalling the tournament record set by Otago Volts last season.

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Steyn burst, Du Plessis 96 seal title for South Africa

South Africa 221 for 4 (du Plessis 96, de Villiers 57*) beat Australia 217 for 9 (Faulkner 40, Steyn 4-35) by six wickets 
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

South Africa won a first-ever tournament final against Australia after a Dale Steyn bowling masterclass handed them the advantage and an anchoring innings from Faf du Plessis - which ended just four short of what would have been a fourth century in the series - guided a composed chase. Steyn's four wickets, which included two in two balls, led a surge through the Australian middle-order in which South Africa plucked five wickets for 29 runs. South Africa paced the reply perfectly using du Plessis' purple patch as the pivot and winning with 9.1 overs remaining.

On a pitch that had not been used in the tournament so far, Steyn found movement early on and reverse-swing by the half-way stage. Australia could not muster anything similar, nor could they find a way to dislodge du Plessis who eventually fell searching for his milestone.

Swing was on offer from the outset but it did not account for the initial breakthrough; Phillip Hughes' overeagerness to show aggression did. He hit the first ball of Steyn's third over hard but AB de Villiers had moved himself out of slip and to short cover, where he collected a stinger. Similarly, after Wayne Parnell's opening over cost nine runs, Steve Smith tried to take the left-armer on and top-edged a pull that ballooned straight up for David Miller at mid-on.

South Africa spinners then enforced a stranglehold as Aaron Phangiso found bounce and Imran Tahir used the googly to good effect. Ultimately, it was Tahir's variation that accounted for George Bailey who chopped one on as he failed to pick the wrong 'un. Australia needed a batsman to partner Aaron Finch and Mitchell Marsh looked the candidate to do the job but the strike was seldom rotated. Finch reached his third fifty of the tournament and but Australia were stung when Steyn's second spell launched in full swing, literally.

Finch's growing unease was exposed when Steyn ripped through the bat-pad gap and wrenched the stumps from the ground. With his next ball, Steyn trapped Glenn Maxwell on the back foot to open Australia up. After a six off Tahir, Marsh's threat was also blunted when he inside-edged a Parnell delivery onto his stumps in the over before the Powerplay, leaving the lower-middle-order with a big job.

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Du Plessis' third century puts South Africa in final

South Africa 271 for 6 (du Plessis 121, Duminy 51) beat Zimbabwe 208 (Taylor 79, Duminy 3-35) by 63 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

South Africa secured their place in the triangular series final against Australia thanks to a third century in the competition from Faf du Plessis, which formed the spine of a target too tall for Zimbabwe to chase. Du Plessis shared a 103-run stand with JP Duminy for the fifth wicket and led the final assault which helped South Africa take 61 runs off the last five overs to put a place in the final beyond Zimbabwe's reach.

The hosts had to reach the score in 25.2 overs to earn a bonus point and improve their run-rate enough to leapfrog South Africa but at a required run-rate of 10.83 to the over that was always going to be a tough ask. Zimbabwe have only managed over 200 once in the five ODIs they played before this one and, although they crossed the mark again this time, their batting let them down again. Aside from a welcome return to form for Brendan Taylor, who scored his first-half century in six innings, no one else managed to stay at the crease for longer than 41 minutes or score more than 29 runs.

This was the last of five ODIs played between South Africa and Zimbabwe over the past three weeks and it was a microcosm of all of them. Zimbabwe were disciplined in the field, after Elton Chigumbura asked South Africa to bat first. Their spinners enforced a stranglehold which kept South Africa quiet for most of the first 45 overs of their innings but, because they lacked the incisiveness to keep taking wickets, one batsman anchored and set up for a final assault. Du Plessis was that that man.

As soon as the score moved beyond 220, Zimbabwe's chances of winning, not in the overs they needed to get to the final, but overall, were dimmed. Their opening partnership remains brittle, their middle-order soft and their tail brave but inadequate even against a South African attack that was a man short.

After a collapse against Australia in their previous match, South Africa chose to bulk up the batting by adding Rilee Rossouw to the XI and had to bench a bowler. Imran Tahir missed out to leave South Africa with just one specialist spinner in Aaron Phangiso. Had Zimbabwe found a partnership as stubborn as the du Plessis-Duminy one, South Africa may have been found wanting but poor shot selection and wavering temperament continue to stunt their progress.

They can look to South Africa's approach as inspiration. When the openers were dismissed in the first eight overs, there was no panic despite the inexperienced player at No.4. Rossouw had two first-ball ducks to his name before this and Zimbabwe could have got through him and into the middle order but he showed more composure this time, particularly against spin.

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India are No.1 ranked ODI side

Zimbabwe's win coupled with England's losses propel India to the top.

India have risen to No. 1 in the ODI rankings, while Australia toppled to fourth place after their defeat to Zimbabwe on Sunday.

Elton Chigumbura lifting his No. 10-ranked team to only their second success against Australia - the first in 31 years - has meant South Africa and Sri Lanka have leapfrogged the free-falling Australia, who were joint-No. 1 with India ahead of that match. India had equalled Australia's points tally following their victoryat Trent Bridge, in the third ODI against England on August 30.

However, the situation at the top remains quite fluid. India will retain their place at No. 1 if they beat England in the remaining two matches of the Royal London ODI series and Australia beat South Africa at least once over the coming week - either on Tuesday or, if they make the final, on Saturday. South Africa will move to the top if they win their two remaining league games and the subsequent final, even if India win the fourth and fifth ODIs.

Australia, too, have a chance at reclaiming No. 1 if they beat South Africa in their remaining league stage game and again in the final. Concurrently, though, India would have to lose at least one of their two ODIs to England.

India had been the No. 1 side when they visited New Zealand in January, but lost the top rank after failing to win a match there.

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Australia seal place in final with bonus-point win

Australia 282 for 7 (Marsh 86*, Hughes 85) beat South Africa 220 (Du Plessis 126, Marsh 2-23) by 62 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Mitchell Marsh almost single-handedly took Australia into the tri-series final, first by plundering 86 off 51 balls, including 21 off a single Dale Steyn over, and then with two wickets to dent South Africa's chase. The bonus-point victory has guaranteed Australia spot in Saturday's showdown but put South Africa's in some danger. If they lose to Zimbabwe by a massive margin, so much so that the hosts gain a bonus point and improve the net run-rate, South Africa could be on an early flight home.

Marsh's blitz injected life into an Australian innings that was solid at the start but became stuck through the middle periods against a stranglehold of spin. He shared in a 71-run stand with Brad Haddin for the sixth wicket, which included taking 60 runs off five overs from the 44th over, as South Africa struggled for a death-bowling option. Those runs ultimately proved the difference between the two sides on a scruffy, sluggish surface on which run-scoring was laboured.

Less than a week after they gunned down a target of 328 against Australia, South Africa stumbled in search of a significantly smaller target. Only Faf du Plessis had some measure of what was required and only he managed a score more than 24. Du Plessis' second ODI century came six days after his first, but in much more trying circumstances because he lacked support.

South Africa's middle-order was untested thus far but in their first stern examination were exposed against pace and pressure, as they have been in the past. JP Duminy, David Miller and to a lesser extend Ryan McLaren left South Africa's long tail with too much to do and threw the spotlight on whether they were a batsman light or whether their bowling was what them down.

For nine-tenths of their time in the field, South Africa operated with discipline, from the opening passages where JP Duminy shared the new ball with Steyn, during the Phillip Hughes-Steven Smith stand of 85 for the second wicket and through the batting Powerplay in which they conceded only 20 runs and took two wickets.

South Africa's specialist spinners, Imran Tahir and Aaron Phangiso, gave away just 81 runs in 20 overs and contributed to a boundary drought that had the rope being breached just once in 10 overs. They limited Hughes and Smith to collecting runs judiciously rather than freely and only Hughes' sprightly start ensured his half-century was achieved at almost a run a ball, off 51 deliveries. They also snaffled three wickets to leave Australia in danger of a posting a total below 250.

But Marsh changed that when he switched from spectator to instigator as the innings neared its end. He tested the water when he drove Steyn through the covers for four and charged Tahir for six. What followed had not been done in ODI cricket before today. Marsh hit Steyn back over his head for six three times off three deliveries.

In a single over, Marsh's took his own score went from 29 to 50, off just 37 balls, which forced de Villiers to look elsewhere for a death bowler. McLaren offered little better. He missed the yorker on too many occasions and then relied on a short ball. Marsh punished all of it to give Australia a score they would have thought defendable, especially after they removed both South African openers inside ten overs of the reply.

Despite that, du Plessis stirred memories of last Wednesday's effort when he flat-batted Marsh over his head twice but those would have dimmed somewhat when de Villiers swept Nathan Lyon to backward square leg. With Duminy and du Plessis at the crease, South Africa had their best chance at recovery but Australia squeezed, allowing them to score at only four runs to the over. Duminy soon pulled one straight to fine leg and David Miller's defenses were shattered by a fiery Johnson short ball and his own lack of footwork to leave South Africa 101 for 5.

Du Plessis found some assistance from McLaren, who stayed with him for 12.2 overs and contributed 24 runs in a stand of 73. Du Plessis was the senior partner, slamming Mitchell Starc for six twice and lofting Lyon inside-out over cover to reach touching distance of his century. McLaren holed out before du Plessis could get to the milestone, which he reached off 94 balls in the next over.

By then South Africa's challenge was all but over, barring any fireworks from Steyn. He was run out, du Plessis trod on his own stumps and Johnson and Maxwell shared last rites to bowl South Africa out in 44 overs and pick Australia up after their defeat to Zimbabwe in the best way possible.

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