KIMBERLEY, South Africa (Reuters) – An unbeaten half-century from Subramanium Badrinath propelled the Chennai Super Kings to a seven-wicket win over the Rajasthan Royals and put them top of the Indian Premier League (IPL) yesterday.

In the first match of the Kimberley double-header the Kings XI Punjab sneaked a three-wicket win off the penultimate ball of their innings against the Deccan Chargers.

After Rajasthan had posted 140 for seven Chennai strolled to 141 for three as they took a one-point lead over the Delhi Daredevils in the standings.

The right-handed Badrinath scored 59 not out and shared a third-wicket stand of 89 runs with Matthew Hayden before the Australian was stumped off the bowling of Shane Warne.

Hayden, the tournament’s leading run-scorer, departed for 48 off 44 balls and fittingly it was Badrinath who scored the winning runs with 10 balls to spare.

Rajasthan’s innings never got off the ground with only a 53-run second-wicket partnership between Graeme Smith (30) and Swapnil Asnodkar (26) providing any impetus before Warne clubbed an unbeaten 21 late in the innings.

Australian Andrew Symonds smashed an unbeaten 60 for the Deccan Chargers but their total of 168 for five proved insufficient.

Punjab’s run-chase was led by Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene who pummelled his way to 43 off 28 balls before being run out.