Vijay (58 off 53 balls), who was let off when on 34, cracked his third half-century of the tournament while the other opener Hussey played sheet anchor and remained not out on 51 as Chennai chased down the small target of 129 with one over to spare.
Spinners Muttiah Muralitharan (3/16) and Ravichandran Ashwin (2/16) shared five wickets as Chennai restricted Warriors to 128 for seven after the South African champion side elected to bat at the New Wanderers Stadium. Vijay underlined his emergence as a fine Twenty20 batsman by becoming the highest run getter of the tournament with 294 runs from six matches, eight more than Warriors captain Davy Jacobs.
Vijay's 53-ball innings was studded with six fours and two sixes while Hussey hit only three fours from 46 balls in his unbeaten knock. CSK were richer by $2.5 millions for winning the second edition of the tournament, their second crown in five months after their IPL triumph in April.
Warriors received $1.3 million for finishing runners-up of the grand finale of the multi-dollar tournament, however, turned out to be a lopsided match with the Warriors bowlers failing to make any impact on the batsmen of the opposition who have beaten them in their last Group A league fixture four days ago.
The total of 128 was too small to defend and Chennai was always in control of the run chase though it got a bit tight with Suresh Raina, who was mainly responsible for CSK's semi-final win against Royal Challengers Bangalore
Hussey and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (17 not out), however, held on their nerves to pull off the win with a 25-run partnership for the unbroken third wicket. Dhoni hit the winning runs - a four off Juan Theron - as Chennai scored 132 for two in 19 overs to lift the title.
Vijay and Hussey did not need to take too much risk as they ran mostly in singles in their 103-run opening wicket stand in front of a capacity crowd. Vijay lived dangerously on a couple of occasions with an edge from his bat flying past wicketkepeer Mark Boucher and Justin Kreusch for a four.
He was also lucky to survive in the ninth over with wicketkeeper Mark Boucher missing a simple stumping chance off the bowling of Nicky Boje when on 34. But he made amends of these lapses later as he struck some fine shots, including two sixes off Nicky Boje.
Vijay fell to Boje in the 15th over after taking his side to the threshold of victory.
MS Dhoni: It is the last time we are playing as a unit. This is a real emotional moment, we may lose some players in the auctions and it's good to win this. We were fortunate to have some fabulous foreign players, Fleming was superb as a coach, Hayden and Hussey were constantly helping the youngsters. We did play well in the knock out stages. The Warriors were off to a great start today but the line that Ashwin bowled helped us. Balaji was brilliant throughout the series. Murali has been fantastic as well, we have been banking on our spinners and they have lived up to their expectations every single time. I would also like to thank the crowd for their support.
MS Dhoni and his team gets a cheque of 2,500,000 US$
Davey Jacobs: We are disappointed about today, they were better than us and Chennai deserved this win. We got off to a good start but Ashwin and Murali were fantastic. We lost the momentum in the middle overs. It was good to make it to the finals but credit to the boys for playing well and helping the team enter the final.
Vijay wins the golden bat for becoming the highest run scorer in the competition.
Ashwin wins the Golden wickets for being the highest wicket taker in the competition.
Ravichandran Ashwin: This has been special for me, could not have had a better finish with CSK winning the competition. There was some spongy bounce on the wicket and we made full use of it. After Jacobs fell, we bowled really well. I have gained a lot of experience playing with Muralitharan. All's well that ends well, I have put the super-over blemish behind and the game after that was perhaps the best I have played so far. When you are bowling with someone like Murali, the opposition would like to take you on and that worked in my favour.
Ravichandran Ashwin is the Man of the Series for taking 13 wickets in the competition.
Murali Vijay: After we restricted them to a low total, Dhoni said that it is a dicey score and we were asked to bat well. Myself and Hussey decided to play our natural game. The ball was not coming onto the bat nicely, we took our time to settle down. I would like to thank the crowd for their support, I would also like to thank my coach back home. He has always been supportive.
Murali Vijay is the Man of the Match for scoring 58 runs off 53 balls.
Now the Chennai team are in a huddle. It looks like Anirudha is belting out some kind of an anthem in Tamil and all the other guys are chipping in. Not sure about the foreign guys though, I see even Hayden, Albie and Kemp singing along, so guessing that they might know a few lines as well. It is their final game as a team - the auctions take place in November for the next edition of the IPL. It is a double for this CSK side, they have won the IPL and now the CL in the same year. A fabulous achievement and richly deserved too.
The Super Kings are now the Emperors of the T20 world. Nothing went wrong for Chennai as Hussey and Vijay got the team off to a fantastic start with a superb 103 run opening stand. It was a golden night for Vijay as he stroked a half century and he also became the proud owner of the Golden Bat for the most number of runs scored in this tournament. Hussey also went past his fifty as Chennai reached home by eight wickets and are now proud champions of this Champions League T20. Stay tuned for the presentation.
As soon as the winning shot was hit by Dhoni, all the Chennai players came rushing on to the ground. They are celebrating in their own way. Nice little scene out there when Dhoni had a word with Rudi Koertzen for his services to the game. Remember that this is Rudi's last game as an umpire.
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