Faftastic du Plessis, Rashid's one-man show and the IPL finalists

Fifty-nine matches and a month and a half later, the two best teams are left standing. Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings, No.1 and No.2 on the Indian Premier League 2018 table after the league stage with only net run rate setting them apart, meet in the final of the 11th edition.

The match on Sunday 27 May will be the fourth time the teams face off this season, with MS Dhoni’s men coming up trumps all three times before this. The third time had Chennai striding into the final.

Kane Williamson’s Hyderabad took the long route to the final, ending a series of four losses with a win in the high-pressure Qualifier 2 against Kolkata Knight Riders. Kolkata, who enjoyed a resurgence towards the end of their campaign, in turn knocked out Rajasthan Royals.

Here are the talking points from the play-offs week.

Curtain raiser for the women
The IPL is in its 11th edition, and now, as Australia's Ellyse Perry put it, a women's IPL is the missing piece of the puzzle. The Board of Control for Cricket in India took one step towards that with a one-off Women's T20 Challenger exhibition match before the first Qualifier in Mumbai, which meant the play-offs began with more smiles than snarls.

Their male counterparts have benefitted from sharing the dressing room with foreign stars for a while now. But now, for the first time, upcoming female cricketers in India got to rub shoulders with 10 of the most talented non-India international stars. Little wonder that there were smiles all around after the last-ball thriller.

The Chennai Super Kings experience
They were supposed to be this year’s Dad’s Army – a team built on experience rather than new promise. Nobody imagined that experience could produce such audacious results.

Down to 62/6 while chasing 140, Chennai had no business winning against Hyderabad. But win they did, with another scarcely believable chase. We’ve lost count of how many times that’s happened this season.

This time, Faf du Plessis was the hero under pressure. And just like that, Chennai were in their seventh final in nine attempts.

Rajasthan slip up on tactics
After 14 overs, Rajasthan needed 61 runs with nine wickets in hand in the Eliminator against Kolkata. As their captain Ajinkya Rahane admitted, most teams would have won from that position. He and his team, however, lost.

The plan was to bat deep, but they left it too late. The settled batsmen fell without a chance to build on their starts, the new batsmen struggled against the spinners, and the batsman with the highest strike rate this season, Krishnappa Gowtham, faced just seven balls. They were left stranded on 144/4 while chasing 170. Mentor Shane Warne, who was far away watching the match from home, wasn't impressed.

**'Andre is Andre'**With the Windies’ Andre Russell, Kolkata captain Dinesh Karthik knows what he’s going to get. So much so that even a 49* off 25 from the all-rounder doesn’t surprise him anymore. "Andre is Andre," he said after another impressive show from the all-rounder, this time against Rajasthan.

Russell has a stunning strike rate of 184.79 this IPL, third on the charts behind Gowtham and Sunil Narine, and it only gets better when Kolkata are batting first. He keeps it simple: “For me, once I get bat to ball, I know it will either be a four or a six. I swing very hard, and I believe in my ability.”

Rashid Khan's one-man showRashid Khan's figures for the week were 2/11 and 3/19. Those two matches in April when he was hit for 55 and 49 seem way back in the past.

But that's not even the best thing he did to seal Hyderabad's spot in the final. At Eden Gardens against Kolkata, he struck a valuable 34* off 10 balls, took two catches and pulled off a run-out to go with his three wickets. "The best spinner in the world," declared Sachin Tendulkar. The best T20 player in the world, his fans might say.

Best knock
It was only his fifth match all IPL, and he had a highest of 33 till then. Yet, Chennai put their faith in Faf du Plessis and he repaid them with a remarkable 67* off 42 balls.

The highlight of the knock was how, coming in as opener, he took the game deep. Even as wickets fell around him and Chennai struggled to 62/6 and then 92/7, he hung around. Then, with 43 to get in the last three overs, du Plessis took 20 off Carlos Brathwaite, and sealed things with a six and five balls to spare.

Best spell
Rashid Khan finished on the losing side, but Hyderabad’s loss for sure couldn’t be blamed on him. His figures from four overs in Qualifier 1 were 2/11. That’s an economy rate of 2.75. In a T20 match. His wickets for the day included MS Dhoni and Dwayne Bravo, who just couldn’t get going against him.

Stand-out quote
“I just entered the changing room now, and asked the boys, ‘How did we win this, guys?’” – Faf du Plessis, after guiding Chennai to the final.