It is something to look forward to. The way things are placed in the IPL so far, there cannot be much doubt that the last few games will decide which side will go through to the next round of the tournament.

Bangalore are already through to the playoffs but they will look to finish in the top two positions in the points table.

On the other hand, the three other spots will have Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Punjab and even Kochi fighting it out for them. All these teams have two matches to be played.

Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings have 16 points, Kolkata Knight Riders have 14, Kings XI Punjab have 12 and Kochi have 10. So, if Mumbai or Chennai win even one of their remaining two games or if they narrowly lose their remaining two, they will be through to the next round.

If Kolkata won both, they will be through to the next round.
If Kolkata won one and Punjab won two, there will be a tie for fourth spot between them for 16 points.

If Kolkata lose both, Punjab win one and Kochi win both, there will be a three way tie for fourth spot with 14 points!

The Mumbai Indians should have gone in with some kind of strategy when they batted against the Deccan Chargers yesterday.

The target wasn’t one to worry about but the pitch was. It was turning and spitting like a cobra and that meant that the best chance for the side was to bat in the first few overs when the ball was new and hard like a champion and get as many runs as possible.

However, the problem was that the Mumbai Indians started off so slowly that they were left with too much to do when the spinners came on. The side lost three wickets as well and off the ten overs that were bowled by the likes of Ojha, Mishra and Duminy, only 37 runs were hit.

This loss now puts a lot of pressure on the side as they will now look to ensure that the side wins the next two games in a row. If they don’t, they run the risk of struggling to get through to the last four stage.

It was a surprise to see the Chennai Super Kings bat first yesterday in their game against the Kolkata Knight Riders. There was rain overnight, there was rain before the game and the least you could do is to win the toss and bat second.

What that also allows is for the side to be aware of what exactly is the target instead of having to grope for it and hope that it does not rain.

What added to the Chennai woes was that the pitch was so slow and low that they could not even bat the opposition out of the game. Instead, they scored only 15 runs in the first six overs and by the time the 20 overs were up, they were restricted to only 114.

Of course, credit must be given to the manner in which the Kolkata Knight Riders bowled. Brett Lee had been hit for more than 20 runs in the last over of the previous game which changed the tide in favour of the opponents. He came back strongly with a spell of four overs for eight runs. Should have been the man of the match.

Halfway into the IPL 2011, barring Mumbai Indians, it is difficult to separate out the teams. Mumbai Indians are at the the top of the group while the rest are struggling to stamp their authority.

At this stage, I would like to put my hand up and select my top four teams who could make it to the last four stage.

Mumbai Indians would be one. They are in for a correction in terms of losing a couple of games here or there but overall possess too strong a side to go down in a hurry.

My second favourites are Kolkata Knight Riders, who will look to ensure that they can continue with some of the form that they have shown in patches. If Pathan and Morgan can start firing, watch out for this side.

This may surprise some but I rate Kochi Tuskers highly as well. A team which can beat Mumbai and Chennai at their best, can beat any other side and they will be a force to reckon with.

My fourth side is Chennai Super Kings and the sole reason for that is the captaincy of MS Dhoni. Apart from that, he has balance in the side and can turn things around with his batting.

Pune Warriors needs to take control over the way that they have been playing recently. They had started off rather well in the tournament but have given their critics much to chew on when they lost three games in a row to ensure that they will need to make a huge comeback.

Pune’s main problem is that on paper they have a very strong batting line-up, probably even as strong as the Mumbai Indians. However, when it comes to batting in the matches they have not been able to do so – getting out cheaply on a couple of occasions.

The need of the hour is for one of either Yuvraj Singh or Robin Uthappa to go on to get a big one. A half-century in quickfire time will be enough to not only help the side win the game but also boost the morale of the concerned player.

However, the problem that exists is that their next game is against the Chennai Super Kings, who had a good battery of bowling and may make life more difficult for the Pune Warriors.

Will they succeed?

The Delhi Daredevils are a team that have gone into the tournament with so many pace bowlers that it was a long time coming. They finally managed to get it right against the Kings XI Punjab by leaving a lot of grass on the pitch for their game against the side in an attempt to help the seam bowlers.

It was a surprise then, to see that the sides got to more than 200 runs each. Delhi scored 230 plus, while the Kings fell 29 runs short of the target.

This just goes to show that leaving a bit of green on the pitch is not necessarily bad for the T20 format. There can still be some games in which the sides may get bowled out cheaply, but it can also help in giving a good contest between the sides – not one that sees the teams struggle to get the ball of the square and make it depressing to watch for the audience.

It is a surprise that the Delhi groundsman did not think of this earlier.

So the Sri Lankan Cricket board has refused to toe the line. They will be calling back their players after all. The Indian Premier League will be left without the Sri Lankan cricketers and that will give the players some food for thought.

For example, the Deccan Chargers and the Kochi Tuskers will be left without their captains. Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakakara lead the teams in the IPL and will need to be packed off now.

Similarly, T Dilshan will leave for the practice given that he is the captain of the side, which means that the Bangalore team will be affected. Thankfully, the side has brought in Chris Gayle as a replacement.

Mumbai Indians will be left without Lasith Malinga, a huge blow to them by any streatch of imagination.

What is interesting to see how the BCCI reacts to this. Frankly because there was an unwritten, oral commitment that the Lankan board would have given the BCCI and that has been called off.

The question is, what happened?

Delhi Daredevils are finally on their way. They have lost two games in a row and one thought that they were going down in the third game that they were playing a well before they finally went on to win the game against the Pune Warriors.

It was a good team effort one must say. Or at least, it was a good bowling effort for sure. Look at the scoreboard and you will know. The target was 188 and yet, the highest score was 46 made by Dave Warner.

There was a 37 from the bat of Virender Sehwag, 31 from Venugopal Rao, Aaron Finch’s 25 and an unbeaten 13 off four balls by James Hopes.

One must speak about the way Venugopal played. This is the third successive game in which he has performed and one must say that he has been one of those few underrated batsmen who has been able to do his job.

And it is not as if his batting has been slow – yesterday’s 31 came 20 balls. Even before that, the half century had been a quickfire one.

Kolkata Knight Riders wins the toss, to bowl first against Rajasthan Royals in Game 12 of the Indian Premier League, being played at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur.

Gautam Gambhir is the Man of the Match for his well made 75

A clinical performance from Gautam Gambhir and Jacques Kallis means Kolkata Knight Riders beat Rajasthan by nine wickets.

None of the bowlers looked effective against Gambhir’s or Kallis’ as a magnificent 152-run partnership off 103 balls sealed the match.

Such was the class that Royals’ bowlers looked clueless as even the Warnie was ineffective.

Kolkata finished the game with two overs and three balls to spare.Both Gambhir and Kallisremained unbeaten at 75 and 80 runs respectively.

Teams :

Kolkata Knight Riders : Manvinder Bisla(wk), Jacques Kallis, Gautam Gambhir(c), Manoj Tiwary, Eoin Morgan, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Brett Lee, Rajat Bhatia, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Iqbal Abdulla

KKR welcomes Brett Lee and Shakib Al Hasan to the team, whileRyan ten Doeschate misses out.

Rajasthan Royals : Shane Watson, Amit Paunikar(wk), Rahul Dravid, Johan Botha, Ross Taylor, Ashok Menaria, Abhishek Raut, Amit Singh, Shane Warne(c), Siddharth Trivedi, Nayan Doshi

Shaun Tait makes way for Shane Watson, while Nayan Doshi replaces Ajinkya Rahane in Rajasthan’s playing XI.

It is hard not to talk about the strength of the Pune Warriors batting. Here is a side which is playing in the IPL for the first time ever and what do we have? A side which is so powerful in its batting on paper, that it is not funny.

At the top of the order, there are Graeme Smith and Jesse Ryder. Smith is a tad out of form but can do a lot of good once he gets going. Ryder can take on any attack on his day.

If Manish Pandey comes back from his injury, god save the opposition at the top of the innings.

Apart from these three, there is the presence of Yuvraj Singh and Robin Uthappa, both so powerful strikers of the ball that the opponents have often been sent scurrying for cover.

In their previous game, apart from these big name players, there was a Mithun Manhas, who had batted rather well and will be difficult to replace.

The question, therefore, is whether these batsmen will be able to live up to their reputations or go kaput?