Ranchi: Riding on a brilliant half century (58 off 47 balls) from Michael Hussey and a fantastic 42 off 27 balls from Murali Vijay, Chennai Super Kings defeated Brisbane Heat by eight wickets and became the first team to enter the semi-final of Champions League T20, 2013 here on Saturday.
Earlier, some disciplined bowling by R Ashwin (1/10 in four overs), Suresh Raina (1/9 in three overs) and Ravindra Jadeja (2/18 in four overs) helped Super Kings restrict Heat at 137 for 7 in 20 overs.
Chasing 138 to win, Chennai achieved the target with 25 balls to spare. Hussey top scored with an unbeaten 55-run knock and shared a 75-run stand for the opening wicket with Murali Vijay (42).
Suresh Raina played a nice little cameo of 23-run before being trapped by Daniel Christian while skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (13) finished the match in style with a six off Ben Cutting.
After electing to bowl, Chennai reduced Heat to 66 for six but some scintillating batting by Ben Cutting made it a contest as he led the side to respectable 137 for seven. Cutting hit five sixes in his blistering 25-ball 42-run knock and added 71 runs with Chris Hartley (31) for the seventh wicket.