The Chennai Super Kings look all set for a top-two place yet again after a thumping victory over the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.
CSK were at their ruthless best with both bat and ball as MS Dhoni's men eased to a comfortable eight-wicket win to end a three-game losing streak in emphatic style.
For RCB, it is the end of another miserable season, which promised so much with their lineup, but eventually flattered to deceive spectacularly.
"Another disappointing game for us," RCB skipper Virat Kohli said. "I think we could have executed our plans with the ball. I think we started off well in this tournament, but then we lost our momentum midway through the season.
"Those close games cost us and they still hurt. We have a strong side and we didn't fulfil our potential. We would have loved to give our fans more wins and I'm disappointed with the way we finished."
CSK's place in second is not assured with KKR also able to move to 18 points with a victory over the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the late game.
However, the Super Kings do have a much better net run rate and that should eventually see them through to Qualifier 1 against the Kings XI Punjab next week.
"I think we were doing quite well," CSK captain and man of the match MS Dhoni said at the presentation ceremony when asked about the three straight losses in a row prior to this match. "Bowling was one area we were not doing consistently well.
"This wicket, to a certain extent, it does suit our bowling and I thought our bowlers did well to restrict them to a decent score of 155, which I think was chaseable and we did well to get there.
"Now it is very important that we keep focus on every game from now on and do our best."
