BAN­GA­LORE-Ban­ga­lore Roy­al Chal­lengers moved in­to the IPL play­offs as the No 1 team af­ter win­ning by eight wick­ets over Chen­nai Su­per Kings, the de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons who took sec­ond place fol­low­ing Kolkata Knight Rid­ers' last-ball loss to Mum­bai In­di­ans yes­ter­day. West In­di­an open­er Chris Gayle smashed 75 not out con­tain­ing six six­es and four bound­aries in 50 balls to guide Ban­ga­lore to 129-2 in 18 overs af­ter Chen­nai was re­strict­ed to 128-8 on a live­ly pitch. In Kolkata, Mum­bai won by five wick­ets af­ter Am­bati Rayudu hit a six off the fi­nal ball by quick Lak­sh­mi­pa­thy Bal­a­ji with the team need­ing four to win. James Franklin hit the first four de­liv­er­ies of the over for bound­aries to set up the dra­mat­ic fin­ish.

Chen­nai pipped Mum­bai to sec­ond place due to hav­ing a bet­ter run rate. Kolkata fin­ished fourth. The four teams qual­i­fy for the play­offs with a round to spare in the 10-team tour­na­ment. "Gayle has been re­spon­si­ble for the turn­around, he has been out­stand­ing," Ban­ga­lore skip­per Daniel Vet­tori said. "Our field­ing and bowl­ing has been good as well, es­pe­cial­ly Za­heer (Khan) to­day." Chen­nai col­lapsed to 22-4 af­ter be­ing put in to bat, with In­di­an pace­man Za­heer dis­miss­ing in-form bats­men Michael Hussey and Suresh Raina for four runs each. Skip­per Ma­hen­dra Singh Dhoni lashed a 40-ball 70 not out with six six­es and three fours but Ban­ga­lore was al­ways on top, tak­ing wick­ets at reg­u­lar in­ter­vals.

Dhoni put on 42 for the fifth wick­et with Wrid­dhi­man Sa­ha (22) be­fore Vi­rat Kohli pro­vid­ed the cru­cial break­through. Vet­tori and pac­er Sreenath Ar­avind fin­ished with two wick­ets each. Dhoni smashed pac­er Ab­hi­manyu Mithun for two six­es and a four to lift the Su­per Kings' score in the fi­nal over. South African bats­man AB de Vil­liers fell to spin­ner Ravichan­dran Ash­win for nought, but Gayle and Kohli (31) put on 80 for the sec­ond wick­et. Gayle hit two six­es in one over off Aus­tralian left-arm pace­man Doug Bollinger and reached his fifty with a bound­ary off West In­di­an all­rounder Dwayne Bra­vo. Gayle smashed spin­ner Raina for a six and a four to bring up the vic­to­ry.

"If you are four to five down at the start, it is al­ways catch-up in this for­mat," Dhoni said. "We tried to get a de­cent to­tal on the board in the end. It was do­ing a bit in the first few overs, we should have de­layed the at­tack." South African bats­man Jacques Kallis struck a con­trolled 59 to lift Kolkata, which lost ear­ly wick­ets af­ter be­ing put in to bat. Kallis, who reached his fifty with two suc­ces­sive six­es off pace­man James Franklin, put on 45 for the third wick­et with Manoj Ti­wary (35) and 57 for the next with Yusuf Pathan (36) to step up the scor­ing rate. Sachin Ten­dulkar hit 38 and Harb­ha­jan Singh, pro­mot­ed as a pinch-hit­ter, lashed 30 but quick Ra­jat Bha­tia's three-wick­et burst, in­clud­ing the prized wick­et of Ten­dulkar, put Kolkata in con­trol.

Franklin, who pre­vi­ous­ly took two wick­ets, turned it around with a 23-ball 45 not out, hit­ting 17 runs in the fi­nal over with Mum­bai In­di­ans need­ed 21 to win. "Great fin­ish by Rayudu and Franklin," Ten­dulkar said. "It was im­por­tant to re­gain our mo­men­tum. Any­thing is pos­si­ble in this game, it's a tricky game, if the bowler doesn't get it right and the bats­man is lucky, that's what can hap­pen." Ban­ga­lore plays Chen­nai in the open­ing play­off match to­mor­row.

scores

• Chen­nai Su­per Kings 128-8 in 20 overs (Ma­hen­dra Singh Dhoni 70 not out, Za­heer Khan 2-19, Sreenath Ar­avind 2-20, Daniel Vet­tori 2-15) lost to Roy­al Chal­lengers Ban­ga­lore 129-2 in 18 overs (Chris Gayle 75 not out, Vi­rat Kohli 31).

• Kolkata Knight Rid­ers 175-7in 20 overs (Jacques Kallis 59, Manoj Ti­wary 35, Yusuf Pathan 36, Abu Nechim 2-32, James Franklin 2-35) lost to Mum­bai In­di­ans 178-5 in 20 overs (Sachin Ten­dulkar 38, Harb­ha­jan Singh 30, J Franklin 45 not out, R Bha­tia 3-22).