Chahar destroyed Punjab's top order on Friday in an uninterrupted impressive spell of seam bowling to restrict Punjab to 106-8.

England's Moeen Ali then scored 46 off 31 and seasoned South African batsman Faf du Plessis remained unbeaten on 36 as Chennai recorded its first victory of the season, reaching 4-107 with more than four overs to spare.

Earlier, Chahar had justified captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's decision to field first after winning the toss.

The right-arm quick hit the top of Mayank Agarwal's off stump on his fourth ball and Ravindra Jadeja's direct throw from short cover left captain Lokesh Rahul well short of his crease.

"There was no dew and enough seam movement," Dhoni said. "Over the years, he (Chahar) has matured into a death bowler too but he's somebody who gets more purchase than other bowlers."

Chahar removed the West Indian duo of Chris Gayle (10) and Nicholas Pooran (0) in his third over before he capped off his brilliant spell by having Deepak Hooda (10) caught at mid-off to left Punjab reeling at 5-26 in the seventh over.

Shahrukh Khan, who top-scored with 47 off 36 balls, couldn't up the scoring rate as Jadeja bowled a tidy spell of 0-19. Khan finally holed out to Jadeja in the last over to give the economical Englishman Sam Curran (1-12) his first wicket.

Despite two late wickets for fast bowler Muhammed Shami (2-21), Punjab always looked behind as Ali and du Plessis shared a 66-run second-wicket stand to give Dhoni's team its first win in two games.

"There's not much more to say when any team loses five wickets in the first six or seven overs," Rahul said.

"You smile and see how you can do better if we get a similar situation. It's important to learn from our mistakes, that's the kind of team that we want to be."

Australian Associated Press