The Rajasthan Royals, not to be outdone by the Chennai Super Kings, also cruised into the semifinals of the Champions League T20, after picking up the easiest of nine-wicket wins against the woeful Perth Scorchers.
CSK had become the first team to book their place in the last-four last night, and the Royals have now joined them, with it now looking like these two IPL sides will meet only in the finals, if at all, with both of them on their way to top of the table finishes.
Set 121 to win by the Scorchers, who just could not get going with the bat, the Royals made light work of the target, reaching the required total in just 16.3 overs to seal their third straight win in the fortress that is the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
The Scorchers are out of the tournament after failing to pick up a single win in three matches.
Rahul Dravid, like his former teammate Sachin Tendulkar, has struggled to make an impact in his final tournament, and there was no change to that trend as the Royals skipper was sent back early by Jason Behrendorff, who found a way through the defences of the Indian legend.
Ajinkya Rahane (62 n.o., 53b, 5x4, 2x6) and Sanju Samson (50 n.o., 42b, 6x4, 1x6), though, just took their time, without putting their teammates in the dugout under any undue pressure, to ease the Royals home.
The two allied for an unbeaten 120 runs as the Royals now head into their final match of the group stage with nothing but an assured top spot to play for.
Earlier, the Scorchers batsmen struggled right from the off, not able to find any kind of momentum or build any sort of partnership - in fact the last-wicket alliance of 22 was the second highest, just behind the 33-run partnership for the third wicket between Simon Katich and Adam Voges.
Those two experience batsmen were thirsted upon to do some damage control, after the openers Liam Davis and Ashton Agar failed to make an impression with the bat.
Davis (18 in 12) started off well, scoring three boundaries in the first few balls, deciding to take the attack to the Royals bowlers. However, that did not last too long as a shot too many led to Davis holing out to Kevon Cooper in the deep off James Faulkner.
Agar followed soon after, with Katich and Voges looking to set some kind of platform for a final assault.
However, it wasn't to be though as the excellent Pravin Tambe (two for 17) came to the fore yet again, dismissing Katich (12 in 18) who had just been given a life by the bowler after dropping a simple return catch.
At that point the Scorchers were on 62 for three in nine overs, but matter sonly got worse with Cooper picking up two wickets in the same over - of Hilton Cartwright and Voges (27) - before Tambe picked up Tom Triffit.
Faulkner (two for 16) got his second wicket by castling Joel Paris before two wickets from two balls from Cooper (four for18) saw the Scorchers in danger of not even reaching 100, with the score at 97 for nine.
However, the last wicket pair of Jason Behrendorff and Michael Beer put on 22 runs in the final 16 balls to at least take their side to 120.
However, with the Royals' power in their batting, it was never going to be even remotely enough.
