Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Rahul Dravid en route to a crucial 44 in Johannesburg on Saturday. (AFP)

Johannesburg: Youngest Twenty20 centurion Manish Pandey played another match-winning knock here Saturday as the Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated the Chennai Super Kings by six wickets to reach the final of the second Indian Premier League (IPL).

Lusty hitting by Virat Kohli (24 ..) and Ross Taylor (17 ..) put finishing touches to the job Pandey started in the best possible fashion. Pandey, a find of the tournament this year, scored 48 off 35 balls.

His 72-run partnership for the third wicket with ‘Mr Dependable’ Rahul Dravid (44 off 39) set the tone for the Challengers’ victory.

Chasing 147 for victory, the Challengers, who finished seventh last year, found themselves in all sorts of trouble when Jacques Kallis (9) and Roelof van der Merwe (2) were back into the pavilion with just 22 on the board. But Pandey picked up from where he finished the last match.

The 19-year-old, who scored an unbeaten 114 against the Deccan Chargers — the first century by an Indian player in the IPL — timed his shots to perfection as the Royal Challengers gradually picked up steam.

At the other end, Dravid, too, seemed to be enjoying himself as he found the boundaries on both sides of the wicket. Together they almost took the game away from last year’s runners-up Chennai Super Kings, before a rush of blood brought an abrupt end to Pandey’s innings. He hit seven fours.

Dravid played some exquisite shots before Muttiah Muralidharan sent him back soon after.

With the wicket slowing down, the boundaries were hard to come by, but Kohli and Taylor ensured there were no further hiccups as they put on 39 runs off 22 deliveries to wrap up the match with seven balls to spare.

Earlier, the Royal Challengers bowled well to restrict the Super Kings to 146 for five.

Electing to field after winning the toss, Anil Kumble’s men picked up wickets at regular intervals to tie down the Super Kings after they had threatened to set a huge total with Parthiv Patel (36) and Matthew Hayden (26) going great guns at the top of the order.

Parthiv was the more aggressive of the two, hitting Jacques Kallis for three fours in his first over and then picking up a couple of boundaries each off Praveen Kumar and Vinay Kumar.

In between, a rather subdued Hayden picked up a couple of boundaries as the duo brought up the team’s first 50 in just 32 balls.

But just as Hayden was looking to break free, his innings was cut short by Vinay, who had him caught by Pandey at long off. Parthiv followed soon after. Kallis trapped him in front of the stumps, ending his 27-ball innings that included seven hits to the fence.

The twin blows put the breaks on scoring as Dhoni (28 off 30 balls) and Suresh Raina (20 off 19) struggled against some disciplined bowling. Raina fell trying to up the tempo and Dhoni followed suit as Chennai failed to cross the 150-run mark.

Albie Morkel’s 17-ball 20 down the order ensured the Super Kings crossed 140.