Ranchi: Mahendra Singh Dhoni can do no wrong at home. He proved so again. And Michael Hussey continues to show, even after retirement from the international stage, why he is 'Mr Cricket'.

Dhoni and Hussey, the two best finishers of modern-day cricket, pulled Chennai Super Kings out of the woods and led the two-time champions to a commanding three-wicket win with just a ball to spare over Royal Challengers Bangalore in Qualifier 2, at the JSCA International Stadium, here, on Friday.

After 2013, the Super Kings and Mumbai Indians clash again, at the same Eden Gardens, on Sunday's IPL VIII final. Considering how the two-time champions finished things off in this game, a cracker of a final is in the offing. Well and truly.

For Virat Kohli, he and his band of challengers have to wait for one more season to attain glory.

RCB tried their best to defend 139 for eight after being asked to bat. But if Dhoni and Hussey get going, it's almost impossible for the rival side, not just RCB, to turn things around.

Kohli has every reason to be furious with Dinesh Karthik, who after getting out to a full toss during the RCB innings, dropped Hussey when he was just on 11. David Wiese was the unfortunate bowler.

Of course, the reprieve to Faf du Plessis off the very first ball he faced was another costly error. Chris Gayle fluffed a relatively easy chance off the bowling of Sreenath Aravind who had dismissed Dwayne Smith off the previous ball.

But Yuzvendra Chahal made amends for that miss, cleaning up Faf first before removing Suresh Raina who played an atrocious shot under the circumstances, in the same over. But Hussey and Dhoni, from thereon, played a near-faultless cricket on a difficult pitch.

They focused mainly rotating the strike, while Hussey unleashed a big shot all of a sudden. The southpaw didn't last till the end, but by the time he was dismissed, he had 56 runs beside his name, apart from stitching a 47-run stand for the fourth wicket with Dhoni. In other words, that partnership was the game decider.

There was no sign of panic from the Super Kings after Hussey's dismissal. Pawan Negi, having done a decent job as a power-hitter, smashed Harshal Patel for a six in the 18 th over to bring the equation in favour of the Super Kings.

In the 19 th over, RCB were able run Negi out while Mitchell Starc knocked over Dwayne Bravo for nought. With just a single needed off three balls, Patel picked up Dhoni, much to the surprise of the capacity crowd. But at that time, the Super Kings had practically made their way to a sixth IPL final.

All Ravichandran Ashwin needed to do was get bat on ball and run. He did so easily.

Dhoni might not have hit the winning run, but he emerged as the ultimate winner. And Ranchi couldn't have asked for anything more...

Earlier, it was Ashish Nehra's spell that had a lot to do behind restricting RCB to 139 for eight. Had it not been for young Sarfaraz (31 off 21 balls), RCB's total would have looked paltry to say the least.

Things looked ominous for the Super Kings after they opted to bowl first as Gayle launched Nehra over cover for half a dozen in the very second ball of the RCB innings, making his intentions clear.

Kohli, too, was starting to look dangerous, hitting Nehra for a four and a six off consecutive deliveries in the fifth over, which was Nehra's second. But the left-armer hit back in that very over.

First, it was Kohli who headed back. Thereafter, four balls later, Nehra delivered RCB with another major blow by removing AB de Villiers.

Kohli must have been extremely disappointed with himself for that unimaginably soft dismissal. Nehra pitched the ball on the back of length, something a player of the stature of Kohli is expected to negotiate with ease. But on this occasion, he gave catching practice to the fielder at short fine-leg. Soon after, De Villiers perished.

Nehra trapped De Villiers in front of middle stump. He was a shade fortunate, though, as the ball pitched marginally outside leg stump.

With Kohli and De Villiers out, RCB were in all sorts of trouble at 36 for three in the eighth over after Ashwin accounted for the in-form Mandeep Singh.