Suresh Raina in action against Kings XI Punjab, on Friday. (PTI)

Mumbai: Virender Sehwag was at his vintage best with a power-packed century as Kings XI Punjab humbled Chennai Super Kings by 24 runs to reach the IPL final for the first time on Friday.

Sehwag flattened the CSK attack with a 58-ball 122, which propelled his side to an imposing 226 for six after being invited to bat at the Wankhede.

KXIP then survived a stiff challenge from Suresh Raina, who responded with a majestic 25-ball 87, as CSK managed 202 for seven in their chase.

The hand-eye co-ordination, which has got Sehwag thousands of runs in international cricket, was at work again as he punished the hapless CSK bowlers with utter disdain, smashing his way to the highest individual score this season.

CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni shuffled his bowlers but there was no stopping Sehwag, who entertained the Wankhede crowd with eight sixes and 12 fours.

Sehwag became only the second batsman this season to score a century after Mumbai Indians’ Lendl Simmons, who had scored an unbeaten 100 against KXIP. And this is not first time Sehwag has scored a hundred in IPL, his first coming in 2011 for Delhi DareDevils against Deccan Chargers.

KXIP will now fight it out for the title with Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday in Bangalore. No team had ever chased a 227-run target in T20 history, but Raina came up with an extraordinary knock which stunned the KXIP and turned the match on its head.

Raina raced to second fastest fifty in IPL off just 16 balls when he lifted Sandeep Sharma over covers for a six. In six overs, CSK were unbelievably placed at 100 for two with Raina batting on 87 off 25 balls with 84 of them coming in boundaries, 12 fours and six awe-inspiring sixes.

However, Raina was run out in the first ball after the Powerplay overs. Brendon McCullum called for a run but George Bailey found Raina short of his crease with a direct hit.

One of the most regal innings in T20s met with a tragic end but it opened up the game and CSK were back in the match after a forgettable effort with the ball.

Raina’s dismissal though opened up the gates as wickets starting tumbling. Brendon McCullum (11) met with the same fate as that of Raina and Ravindra Jadeja (27) was caught brilliantly by Mitchell Johnson off Parvinder Awana.

David Hussey (1) fell in that same Awana over, leaving his skipper Dhoni with the task of scoring 84 off 42 balls. Dhoni has been an incredible finisher for his side but his unbeaten 42 was not enough.

Earlier, it was not first time that KXIP tormented the CSK bowlers like this, since their previous highest score (231 / 4) had also come against the Dhoni-led side and it third time they have beaten CSK.

Sehwag put on 110 runs for the first wicket with Manan Vohra (34) and flattened the CSK bowling attack, which has conceded a score in excess of 200 for the third time in the season to the same opponents.

The swashbuckling opener's pyrotechnics, when everyone expected Glenn Maxwell as the bigger threat, caught the two-time former champions by surprise.