There was to be no fairytale ending for the Deccan Chargers’ fans. Gifted a final home game that actually mattered to their opponents, the Chargers surrendered limply once again. As usual, most of their runs were scored by their Indian players rather than by their high-paid foreign stars – Venugopal Rao has been particularly impressive throughout. And a total of 147 was never much of a problem for Chennai to overhaul. So the Super Kings are safe in the semi-finals at last, and the journalists of the Deccan Chronicle have one last opportunity to vent their fury on their under-performing team.

That win also means that Mumbai are definitely out of the tournament. The one point from the washed out game means that Delhi will finish ahead of Mumbai even if they both win the same number of games. That’s a shame because it means that tomorrow’s game in Bangalore is now being played only for pride.