EAST LONDON, May 4: Albie Morkel swung it in and Adam Gilchrist looking to whip through mid-wicket missed the ball and was trapped in front. Three minutes later Herschelle Gibbs danced down to Sudeep Tyagi, failed to connect and the ball found the pads on the way to the stumps. As a contest the Chennai Super Kings-Deccan Chargers IPL match was over. Chasing a tough 179 for a win, Chargers were bowled out for 100 in 14.4 overs as Chennai moved to the top of the table with nine points.

Dwayne Smith (49, 23 balls, 2x4, 5x6) gave something to cheer for the Chargers. His effort was extreme butchery even by T20 standards. During his 23-ball stay, the West Indian put the fear of God in every spectator. They scurried for cover as Smith launched some brooding hits. The pick up hit off Morkel will remain in the memory of East London for long. Each of his five sixes had a stamp of class to it. But all this was too late as the top-order had crashed to almost next to nothing.

V.V.S. Laxman's poor run continued but Rohit Sharma could have done better. Having got a start and Smith blazing at the other end, all that he had to do was be careful with his shot selection. And he failed to do just that.

Chipping at a ball aimed at his pads he found the fielder in the deep. The Chargers had a lot to gain in terms of net run rate even if winning was a steep task.

Earlier, Chennai Super Kings made the most of batting first on a wicket that allowed the batsmen to hit through the line. There was nothing wrong with the new ball pair of new comer Ryan Harris and R.P. Singh but Matthew Hayden took his chances and it came off. The rub of the green was entirely with Chennai as edges frequently flew to unmanned areas.

M. Vijay played his part well by not only rotating the strike but also making the loose deliveries count. Gilchrist moved his bowlers around and the threatening first wicket stand was cut short by an excellent catch by R.P. Singh at gully when the batsman failed to keep his square cut down.

T. Suman was introduced into the attack and he promptly proved his skipper right by picking up the wicket of Vijay, Gibbs judging a difficult catch to perfection at long off.

The 100 came up in 12.2 overs and it looked like Chargers had come back effectively before Suresh Raina cut loose.

As in the previous two games, the third over from the part-time bowler proved to be the nemesis. Raina thumped two huge sixes over mid-wicket off Suman as Chennai collected 17 from the over to race ahead.

To the Chargers' credit they did extremely well in the field even during the onslaught.

The bowling provided the length for the batsmen and they had to pay the price but the body language was positive.

R.P. bowled a tight 18th over giving away only four runs and also accounted for Raina. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, batting at number three and Albie Morkel threw their bats at everything and just as the way the innings started; things went Chennai's way as they finished with 178/3. A winning score taking the conditions into account.