Dharmasala, Apr 19 (IANS): Mahendra Singh Dhoni's two towering sixes in the last over earned a thrilling six-wicket victory for Chennai Super Kings over Kings XI Punjab and a semi-final spot in the Indian Premier League.

Super Kings needed 16 off the last over from Irfan Pathan to chase down 193 runs and Dhoni (54 not out off 29 balls) took his team home with two balls to spare.

Pathan was at the receiving end of Dhoni's brute power. Dhoni struck the first ball for four, mistimed and skied the second but Piyush Chawla fell short to lap the ball that gave him two runs, and then cleared the long on off succesive balls.

In a rare show of emotion, a pumped-up Dhoni punched himself as his teammates, dashed towards the field as if in a race to outsprint each other.

Kings XI, who became the first team in this edition to be counted out of the semi-final contention, had taken on the role of a party spoiler, but fell short this time. Super Kings finished with 14 points from 14 matches.

The Punjab team put up one of their best batting performances in the tournament with Shaun Marsh hitting 88 off 57 balls, enthralling the crowd with eight fours and five sixes. Marsh and Mahela Jayawerdena (21 off 8 balls) made the intention clear from the start. They smashed 34 runs off 18 balls.

Kumar Sangakkara scored 33 while Irfan Pathan's 27-ball 44 that included four fours and a six gave the late thrust to the innings.

Chennai Super Kings lost Muarli Vijay and Matthew Hayden early but Suresh Raina (46) and Subramaniam Badrinath (53) kept them in the hunt with a 62-run stand.

Badrinath and Dhoni then added 59 runs for the fourth wicket and when the former fell to Chawla, Super Kings needed 45 runs from 20 balls.

Dhoni struck Juan Theron for two fours in the penultimate over to take 13 runs off it and then closed the match in the last over in a superb manner with two balls to spare.