Tirumalasetti Suman and Andrew Symonds did an encore with the duo setting up a comfortable six-wicket victory over Chennai Super Kings at the VCA Stadium on Saturday. Chennai threw away a solid start leaving Deccan Chargers to chase a modest 139, and the ‘hosts’ obliged by reaching the target with five balls to spare.

Suman, who stroked an unbeaten 77 in Deccan’s win over Bangalore, reached another half-century and revived their chase with the team struggling at 61-3 in the 11th over. Suman combined well with Symonds, the Australian then seeing the side home with an ubeaten 27.

With the teams now level on points, six teams have a chance of making it to the semi-finals. Deccan’s second win on the trot keeps them in the hunt, and Suman and Symonds backed up their bowlers’ terrific effort to restrict a Chennai line-up brimming with top-class batsmen.

Matthew Hayden and Murali Vijay got Chennai off to a flier after opting to bat, but the visitors kept losing wickets at frequent intervals to peg them back. Suresh Raina carried Chennai with a fluent half-century but his dismissal for 52 meant the side could not utilise its final few overs.

Deccan Chargers were exceptional with the ball, with Ryan Harris picking up 3-18 from his four overs, while Harmeet Singh conceded just 22 runs and picked up the wicket of Hayden for 19. Pragyan Ojha (1-19) backed them up with an economical spell of his own.

Chennai were dealt their biggest blow in the middle order with captain MS Dhoni, Mike Hussey and S Badrinath failing to contribute much to the total, with their end tally a paltry 138-8.

Chennai retained the same side that beat Mumbai in their previous outing while Deccan welcomed back Dwayne Smith who replaced Mitchell Marsh, and Bodapati Sumanth came in for Venugopal Rao.