Live cricket score - CSK vs SRH, IPL 2018 Final

Kane Williamson collects the runners-up check, and Dhoni picks up the one for winners.That's all folks! This brings us to the end of IPL 2018. We hope you enjoyed our coverage. Ciao!

Andrew Tyetakes the Purple Cap, while Sunil Narine is this season's MVP.

Mumbai Indians win the Fairplay award.

Player reactions | Twitter Reactions

Rishabh Pantis awarded theEmerging Player of the Season.Pant will also collect the Perfect Catch of IPL 2018 for teammate Trent Boult.

Shane Watson is the Man of the Match.No surprises there!

Don't go anywhere, the presentation ceremony is coming up!

Rayudu: I was really fortunate to have such a season for Chennai. I worked really hard for it and am glad that I could hit the winning runs.

He gets the Orange Cap as the consolation prize though...

CSK players all run towards Watson, who is being hugged by a joyous Rayudu.

At the halfway stage we were thinking SRH, the "serial defenders of the season", have maybe done enough to win this when they finished with a strong 178 on the board. CSK and Watson's slow start, followed by an early wicket of du Plessis only strengthened that belief. And then, Watson unleashed his fury. From 0 off 10 balls to 100 off 51 balls! He single-handedly turned the tables on SRH and put CSK on course to victory! Stunning hundred this, sensational comeback after that slow start. He finishes unbeaten on 117!

And there it is! CSK win by eight wickets to lift the IPL 2018 trophy! Their third title in 11 years, a fairytale finish to their comeback story! Rayudu hits the winning runs, how very fitting! Wankhede erupts!

STAT ALERT: Fifth 100 of IPL, fourth against SRH

128* Pant | 108* Watson | 104* Gayle | 100* Rayudu

And there's the hundred. SEcond of the season but, obviously, more special one this. Watson's taking CSK closer and closer to that trophy - their third IPL title. He's smiling! The dug-out stands and applauds.

Carnage continues:Shane Watson is on a roll here! Sandeep Sharma the bowler at the receiving end of it. 0.4.6.6.6.4 = 27 off the over! Brathwaite, meanwhile, gets SRH the breakthrough with the wicket of Raina on DRS review. Caught behind appeal that's turned down but Williamson wants a review. Raina knows he's gloved it.. he's walking off too as the third umpire goes through the replays. There's a spike on snicko and SHR get a wicket. That, however, doesn't mean respite for them as Watson continues the attack. A four and six to wrap up the over! He's moved on to 97 off 48! Oh, and Rayudu is the new man in.

Chennai were 20/1 after 5 overs and 72/1 after 9. 52 massive runs knocked off the target in four overs. Game-changing phase this? Most of the damage there has been done by Watson, making up for the lost time earlier. He brings up a half-century with a six off just 33 balls, and that after playing out 10 dots upfront to open his account. Those 51 have effectively come off 23 balls!

CSK getting a bit of a move on,Watson among the runs and that's a happy sign for CSK. And so, Kane Williamson brings on his best bet - here comes Rashid Khan. Game on!

Deepu has an interesting stat:Fourth lowest PP score for CSK this IPL and three of them have been against SRH - 27 in Hyd; 33 in Qualifier 1 and 35 tonight. Well, they won the first two!

Sandeep draws first blood:Faf falls. Knuckle ball from Sandeep and SRH have the first breakthrough. The pressure to go big was always going to be there - CSK had played out 11 dot balls off the 12 Bhuvi had bowled - and Faf falls to it. Tried to take the aerial route but got his timing all wrong. Sandeep takes a catch off his own bowling.

Plenty of support for CSK:

Alright. We're back for the final innings of this year's IPL. The final chase. CSK have a target of 179. Let's see how they go. Faf and Watson, the latter on strike. Bhuvi has the ball and he kicks off with a maiden.

Not bad, the final overs from both Lungi and Thakur. Eight and ten off it respectively asCSK are set 179-run target for their third IPL title.Yusuf and Brathwaite playing a vital hand with those cameos in the end. Join us back in 15 for CSK's reply.

Meanwhile in England...

Yusuf keeps SRH on track:CSK might have come back hard at SRH but Yusuf is keeping them in the hunt for that 180 kinds total. He's quickly marched on to 41 off 21 with the help of four boundaries and two big ones into the stands. 160/5 after 18 overs... Lungi will bowl the final over and probably the last one will be by Shardul. How much more you reckon SRH can get?

CSK HIT BACK: Shakib and Yusuf together threatened to not let the departure of Williamson affect their scoring but CSK have come back in style. They've taken out Shakib and Hooda in successive overs. Bravo and Lungi picking up the wickets respectively. Here's Brathwaite.

And now Williamson. CSK spinners on top.Jadeja was hit for a couple of fours and a six by Shakib, who replaced Dhawan in the middle, and then Williamson tried to take on Karn Sharma. He danced down the track to Karn's first ball - a bit pre-meditated this - and Karn spots that to throw it wide outside off. Williamson tries to fetch it, and MSD does the rest behind the stumps at the speed of light! Massive wicket this for CSK!

The time-out jinx continues, and claims Dhawan this time. Not immediately after the break though, as Dhawan picked a single to bring up the fifty of the partnership. But he shapes up to sweep Jadeja and completely misses his shot. The ball deflects off his back leg onto the stumps and its the second wicket for CSK, and a big one.

Time-out:Bravo initiated into the attack just before the break. He has such a good start to the over - three dots on the row to Dhawan - before Williamson took strike and hit a couple of stunning shots - for four and a six - to take SRH to a healthy 62/1 after 8 overs.

Deepu with a milestone alert:700 runs in the season for Williamson (when on 12) - first player to do so

Lungi bowls a crucial maiden but Williamson decides he's had enough. Dhawan takes a single off Chahar's first delivery in the fifth over and Williamson goes on a rampage. A top-edge flew for a six, thanks to the small boundaries at Wankhede, and he follows it up with a four to pick a total of 13 in the over.

BREAKTHROUGH: Goswami is run out!Where was the second run, guys? Short ball and Goswami sends it towards square leg and then wants a second. Karn Sharma comes running in and fires in a throw to Dhoni who, like always, takes the bails off in a split second. Goswami is not even in the frame. What a shame! Here's Kane...

CSK in a huddle before taking their positions. Dhawan and Goswami walk out to open SRH's innings. Deepak Chahar with the ball.. right then, here we go. Chahar, who began the previous encounter with a wicket of Dhawan off the first ball, dishes out a waist-high full toss to kick start the final.

All set then! It's time for... umm, National Anthem! Moments away from live action...

More support for SRH:

Here are the playing XIs for tonight's final:

Sunrisers Hyderabad:

Chennai Super Kings:

And one more: Teams opting to chase winning in final - RR in 2008 & KKR in 2014

Chasing has been a trend all throughout the season, including the knockouts, hasn't it. Here's an interesting stat: Teams winning the toss opting to chase all four matches in playoffs - 2009, 2014 & 2018

There's some drama at toss and Sanjay Manjrekar can't seem to figure who's won the toss.In his defence, he was following the coin while Kane Williamson called. It's heads and CSK is it, Dhoni clarifies Kane called it tails. And, Dhoni elects to field.They have one change in their eleven.. Karn Sharma comes in for Harbhajan Singh. SRH have two, Saha is injured so Goswami is back. Sandeep replaces Khaleel Ahmed, who got a debut game in Qualifier II.

Toss coming up in five..Big game, the final, win the toss and bat first?

The previous game at the Wankhede, also between these same two teams, had a track that was a spinner's delight. But even as the experienced CSK line-up got the better of Afghanistan spin sensation Rashid Khan then, the Sunrisers are hoping he'd be their X-factor in the big finale. Here's a reminder of what he did in the previous outing.

While we wait for the toss, here's out match preview.

Welcome! It's nearly been two months of this T20 extravaganza and here we are, at the finale. Chennai Super Kings are one step away from completing a fairytale comeback from the two-year ban, while SRH are chasing their second title in three years. CSK have beaten SRH thrice in this edition so far, including in Qualifier I. Can SRH settle the scores tonight? We shall find out all very soon. Stay tuned!