In every sense of the word Chris Gayle is an IPL colossus. He scored 733 runs in the fifth season of the IPL at an average of 61.08 and with a strike-rate of 160.74. The next highest in the list is Shikhar Dhawan with 569 runs at an average of 40.64. The highest Chennai

On the bowling front, Morne Morkel has been superb. The South African has claimed 25 wickets with a strike rate of 16.64 and his economy rate of 7.04 hasn’t been too bad either. Second best is the mysterious Sunil Narine with 22 wickets with a strike rate of 11.95 and a stunning economy rate of 5.14. The best Chennai bowler is Ravindra Jadeja – 18th on the list – with just 11 wickets @ 23.45 and an economy rate of 7.81.

And yet, Chennai – without any batsmen or bowlers firing – find themselves with a place in the play-offs. One might be tempted to ask how?

For starters, a few results went their way. Royal Challengers’ surprise loss against Deccan Chargers pushed them through to the play-offs.

In their last game, Chennai lost to Kings XI Punjab with Adam Gilchrist playing a blinder in tough conditions. But in the two matches before that they beatDelhi Daredevils by nine wickets and then followed it up with a five wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders.

Delhi and Kolkata have ended up as the top teams of this year’s competition and it only went to show that despite not performing like champions, Chennai could still win against the best. Of course, they’ll need to win another three games against top competition to win the title for the third time and that’s easier said than done. But perhaps it was skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s luck that did the trick.

Dhoni’s doesn’t manage to get it right at the toss very often but somehow as tournament’s come to an end, he finds a moment to shine. He’s made a career out of that.

The other guys who need to come to the party are Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin, Murali Vijay and to an extent Ravindra Jadeja. CSK’s best performers have been their foreign players in Dwayne Bravo, du Plessis and Albie Morkel but to win the title, the Indian players need to fire as well.

Chennai’s giants have somehow slept through the tournament and still managed to come through. It’s highly unlikely that they will be able to do that anymore. CSK were one of the pre-tournament favourites and their fans will be hoping that the ‘Whistle Podu’ boys can turn around their season is some style.