Today’s action from the IPL saw the Delhi Daredevils visiting Kolkata to play the Knight Riders. It looked to be a fairly straightforward affair. Ganguly won the toss and elected to bat, but he was unable to repeat his sparkling form from his previous match, and Kolkata managed a miserable 133 from their 20 overs.

It looked like a walk in the park for Delhi. Sehwag and Gambhir have established themselves as the most destructive opening partnership in the tournament. Even if one of them failed, the other was likely to win the game single-handed. But I had entirely forgotten that the Knight Riders team had recently been strengthened by the arrival of the Rawalpindi Express. Shoaib Akhtar might be in disgrace in Pakistan, but in Kolkata he is everyone’s hero. Three overs later, Shoaib had taken 4-11 and broken the back of the Delhi innings. Not only had he disposed of Sehwag and Gambhir, he did for DeVilliers and Tiwary as well. The top four Delhi batsmen made only 26 runs between them. It is just possible that a determined innings from one of the lower order batsmen could have won the game. Kolkata’s total was very low, after all. But Ganguly is a wily old captain and he put the squeeze on when it was needed. Kolkata won by 23.

So now everyone who is following the IPL will be rushing to their schedules to find out if they still have a game to play against Kolkata. The bad news for the Royals is that they do. It is a week today. Oh well, with any luck Shoaib will have got himself suspended again by then.

Some things in the IPL appear to be entirely predictable. The result of today’s game between the Punjab Kings and the Bangalore Royal Challengers was one of them. More poor batting from Bangalore. Lone and futile resistance from Mark Boucher. Another fine innings by Shaun Marsh. Punjab win by 9 wickets. Next game please.

It was double-header time in the IPL again today, but I missed the first match because it conflicted with the Turkish Grand Prix. From the scorecard it looks like another disappointing performance by the Deccan Chargers. After their limp surrender against the Royals they must have hoped for a better performance in from of their home crowd. As it was, they found Ganguly in fine form, and his 91 off 57 deliveries helped the Knight Riders to a daunting total of 204. The Chargers’ batting managed to keep pace for a long time, but they lost too many wickets in the process. A swashbuckling 71 by Venugopal Rao late on in the innings makes the final score look respectable, but I don’t think the outcome could ever have been in much doubt.

The second game saw Warnie and the Royals take on one of their biggest rivals, the Delhi Daredevils. It was Dimi Mascarenhas’s first game in the IPL, and he found himself opening the bowling against Gambhir and Sehwag, surely the most destructive partnership in the tournament. To get out of that with an economy rate of 7.25 and two wickets is pretty laudable. The Daredevils finally amassed a total of 156, which should have been fairly easy. As it was the Royals kept making it harder than it should have been, losing Kaif and Watson to run-outs, and Warne and Mascarenhas to wild swings. Thankfully the tail didn’t panic and were able to capitalize on Watson’s excellent 74, making the 7 needed off the last two overs to bring home the win. Which puts the Royals a game clear at the top of the table. That’s my boys!

Today saw the return fixture in the battle of the kings. Chennai’s Super Kings won the first match in Mohali, and the Punjab Kings were out for revenge on their visit to Chennai. The match went back and fore. Yuvraj won the toss and put Chennai in to bat. Sreesanth got two early wickets, but then Dhoni and Badrinath took control. The Super Kings didn’t quite accelerate as they would have liked, but 181 was a respectable target. Shaun Marsh once again batted well, as did Irfan Pathan, but the star of the game was Lakshmipathy Balaji. He took the vital wickets of Marsh and Sarwan in one over to break up the Punjab run chase, and then a hat trick in the final over as the Chennai tail got desperate. Chennai win by 18 runs; Balaji finished with 4-0-24-5; and the Royals are still top of the table (if only on net run rate).

I think my brain was fried yesterday. Today’s game was Royals v Chargers, not Royals v Kings. That’s a much easier prospect. Almost too easy, in fact. We do like games to be competitive. Gillie tried hard as usual, but even he was not at his best, and the rest of the Chargers’ batting was hopeless. Set a mere 140 to chase, the Royals did it at a canter. And now Warnie and the boys are back on top of the table. I’m even starting to get confident about a place in the playoffs.

They did finally get playing in Kolkata, and the result was yet another fabulous match. The game was limited to 16 overs. The Knight Riders batted first, and kept losing wickets so they only reached 123. The Royal Challengers were slow in the chase, but they had the big hitting of Cameron White and Mark Boucher to come. In the end they needed 20 off the last over, and only managed 13. Credit to Ishant Sharma for bowling two great overs at the end of the game. Much relief for Ganguly, who looked like his heart couldn’t take many more close finishes. More depression for poor Dravid.

Tomorrow a top-of-the-table clash between Rajasthan and Punjab.

Today’s match between Delhi and Chennai was every bit as close as their positions in the table suggested it might be. Third and fourth coming into the game, both sides knew that they had to make a statement. Delhi batted first and set a very respectable total of 188, thanks mainly to a fine 80 off 49 balls by Gambhir. The Chennai innings went back and fore. Vidyut and Flemming started well, but then both got out. Dhoni and Morkel appeared to have rescued the game, but then Morkel got run out. Dhoni appeared able to win it by himself, but then holed out trying one too many hits over the top. Finally it was down to Badrinath and Gony to make 15 off the last over. Fortunately for the Super Kings, Gony was up to the challenge: a huge blow for 6 and a lucky edge for 4, set them up, and Badrinath was able to manufacture a single off the final ball to avoid a tie and the tournament’s first ever bowl-out. “It can’t get better than this.” said Dhoni after the game, and from the neutral spectator’s point of view he’s right.

Today we should be getting a double-header, but it is raining in Kolkata so no play right now.

It is proving hard to stay on top in the IPL. Warnie and the Royals went to Mumbai today to face a resurgent Indians side on a two-game winning streak. Put in to bat, the Royals were skittled out for 103, the lowest first innings total in the tournament so far. Only the big-hitting Watson and reliable Asnodkar got into double figures. I had hopes that the wicket was dodgy and that Tanvir, Watson and Warne would produce a bowling miracle, but it was not to be. Punjab now head the table on net run rate, but Delhi are likely to overtake them if they can beat the Super Kings tomorrow. My, it is tight at the top.

Now that is what the crowds have been waiting to see!

Chennai’s batting looks distinctly below par in the absence of Hayden and Hussey. Fleming is not proving a suitable replacement. That said, Dhoni steadied the ship and the tail wagged nicely to give an almost respectable 144. So the Chargers give chase, and a swift 54 from Gilchrist gets them off to a good start. The Super Kings bowlers fight back, tying the batsmen down, and Hyderabad needs 18 off the last three overs. Scott Styris wisely takes a single. And here’s Afridi, who has faced one legitimate ball, and run a bye off a wide. He spends one ball taking a careful look at Joginder Sharma’s bowling, and then proceeds to whack 20 runs off the next four balls. Game over, the Boom Boom way.

Oh dear, I feel so sorry for Dravid. I haven’t seen any video of this, but judging from Cricinfo the match was over from the time that Sreesanth took two wickets in the first over. Ah well, at least the Royal Challengers are probably still top of the Fair Play league. Meanwhile, the Punjab Kings stroll mightily on, but don’t have a good enough net run rate to unseat the Royals who are still top of the table.

The IPL found a bowler’s wicket at last in Jaipur today, and Sohail Tanvir made full use of it. The Super Kings chose to bat, but Tanvir’s 6-14 (after 3 overs he had 5-2) made certain that there was only one team in it. Warnie did his bit too, thoroughly bamboozling Dhoni to remove the dangerous Chennai captain. 109 all out, with one over wasted, was never going to be enough. And then Smith and Asnodkar put on 78 together before Asnodkar got a rank long-hop and holed out at mid wicket. In the end an 8-wicket victory, and the Royals, who spent less money on their squad than any other team in the tournament, are top of the table. Incredible.

It was best v worst in the IPL in Mumbai today as the all-conquering Daredevils sought to put one over on the hapless Indians, but it was not to be. The sun is shining again in Mumbai at last. Jayasuriya got them off to a good start with a typically swashbuckling 34 off 16 balls, and Shaun Pollock rescued the innings at the end with an equally aggressive 33 off 15. A target of 163 should have been easy for Delhi’s in-form batsmen, but one by one the wickets fell. The match was still very much in the balance until about 3 overs from the end when Dwayne Bravo came back and disposed of Karthik with the first ball of the over. After that, too much desperate slogging and too many grateful catches. The star for Mumbai with the ball? Shaun Pollock, of course, with 2 for 16 off his 4 overs. Nothing like a huge upset to get the fans excited.

There was another great finish in the IPL today. For a long time the game between the Punjab Kings and the Kolkata Knight Riders looked dead and buried. The Kings batted first and managed a challenging 178, thanks once again to a strong opening performance from Stuart Marsh. Kolkata were never in the hunt, and with the 5th wicket going down for just 50 in the 10th over I more or less gave up on the game. But David Hussey and Wriddhiman Saha refused to lie down and die. They built a partnership, accelerated the scoring rate, and needed 55 to win off the last three overs. They got close too. 18 off the first over, and 12 off the second before Hussey holed out. In the end Kolkata were only 10 runs short.

So, Punjab cement their 4th place in the table. Tomorrow Sehwag’s all-conquering Daredevils look to crush the hapless and still-Tendulkar-less Indians, while Warnie and the Royals host the mighty Super Kings. I expect I’ll be running models much of tomorrow, so I may be able to watch some of that.

Bangalore get another win at last, but really, they shouldn’t have. Batting first, the Royal Challengers amassed only 156, which should have been an easy target for a side so full of batting talent as the Chargers. And yet, once again, the star batsmen nearly all failed. Even so, Laxman and Sharma almost managed to win the game by themselves. Dravid kept patiently swapping bowlers around and trying to apply pressure, and eventually it worked. Jacques Kallis got Sharma out to give a score of 127/3, with three over left, and the Chargers batting proceeded to self-destruct.

With one over left they needed 20 to win, and having used up his pace men early on Dravid was forced to turn to Kumble to bowl the final over. After a couple of singles, the appropriately named Sanjay Bangar manged to bang the ball over the boundary for a couple of 6s, but Kumble got things back under control and disaster was avoided. The Royal Challengers will be relived to have another win, but Chargers fans will be wondering how Gilchrist, Gibbs, Afridi and Styris only managed 18 runs between them.

Wish I’d got to watch this one rather than following it on Cricinfo, but text reporting is way better than nothing.

The Super Kings are no longer unbeaten. Their batting struggled to score quickly against Delhi’s impressive bowling attack. Sehwag took a gamble of bringing McGrath back for his last over early (16th I think) and it worked, putting the brakes on the run chase and getting a vital wicket. 169 always looked getable, and with Sehwag and Gambhir going off at full speed at the start of the innings the Daredevils were able to finish at a canter. So now Delhi are top of the table.

Oh dear. You would have thought that a team with a batting line-up including Laxman, Gilchrist, Gibbs and Afridi could do better than 167, especially on their home ground on a good wicket. Good job the Chargers had Rohit Sharma. And another good performance with the ball by young Chawla who seems to be getting the hang of this Twenty20 thing. The Kings batting line-up is not as incendiary, but is rather more sensible. Sangakkara and Jayawardene can accumulate steadily, and Yuvraj can occasionally supply fireworks. Also they now have young Stuart Marsh whose father, Geoff, played 50 tests, mainly as an opener, for Australia. Looks like batting is in the genes. If I were the Chargers I’d avoid reading the Deccan Chronicle tomorrow. Meanwhile Preity Zinta’s boys look like very strong contenders, even without Brett Lee.