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.

Another great performance by Warnie and the boys today. It was a day game in Jaipur, and having won the toss Warnie decided to make the Knight Riders run around the hot sun for an hour or so. The Royals managed to make 196 despite Smith and Watson getting on 2 between them, which must have made the captain very happy. After that, it was just a question of a disciplined bowling job. Without McCullum and Ponting the Knight Riders batting looks a little toothless – something they more or less admitted when they sent Argarkar in at #3 to try to get some quick runs. Ganguly and Hussey batted OK, but they were not enough, and the Royals won comfortably. Jadeja had another impressive game, getting 33 quick runs and being responsible for two excellent run-outs. I was also impressed with little Swapnil Asnodkar from Goa who made a sparkling 60 at the start of the innings. Warnie is finding some really good youngsters.

There’s not a lot of cricket in England right now because of the rain. Today it was so heavy it even managed to disrupt the satellite feed at times. Now I know what they mean in those “we lost the picture” ads for cable TV (although of course it doesn’t often rain like that in California).

Delhi appear to have fired their cheerleaders, or at least caved in to pressure from conservative politicians, but it doesn’t seem to have done them much harm. The only divine vengeance visited upon the team was a fire in the media center that prevented any live video until about half an hour into the game. That was a shame, because both Sehwag and Gambhir were in fine form. At one point it looked like Delhi were set for 250, but the Royal Challengers worked hard to peg them back to only 191. That’s an achievable target against many teams, but not one whose bowling lineup includes Glenn McGrath and Daniel Vettori. Kallis and Dravid batted well, but neither of them can score at the pace necessary to make a big score in Twenty20. Boucher had a quick flurry at the end, but I don’t think he would have done so well had Sehwag not nobly volunteered to bowl the last over, safe in the knowledge that he could leak 29 runs and still win. That’s what you call the captain taking one for the team.

By the way, the games are on Setanta Sports in the UK. The package is £10/month, and for that you also get a lot of soccer, Celtic League Rugby, Aussie Rules football, and NHL ice hockey (although the less said about the latter right now the better). Plus a huge amount of horse racing (Setanta are Irish, after all), a lot of golf, and a pile of soccer team channels. Not a bad deal. And it takes less time to sign up than it takes for the satellite signal to synchronize with your box. Very efficient. The Irish girl I chatted with told me that they are getting a lot of new subscriptions from people wanting to watch the IPL cricket.

You know, the Royal Challengers really ought to have won that game. They had Chennai on the ropes until Hussey and Dhoni turned things around, and Dhoni whacked them all over the park in the last two overs. Then Jaffer and Taylor had the game all but won, but could not stay to see it through. Dravid was unlucky – given out LBW off his first ball when Hawkeye said it was going well over, but his team just isn’t working, and Taylor, who has been one of the highlights of the squad, will be off to England with the New Zealand side soon.

Meanwhile, on the BBC’s TMS blog, Aggers is giving his view of the IPL. Happily he isn’t condemning it outright. He does, however, suggest that it may be time to scrap the 50-over game, because otherwise there just won’t be room for everything in the crowded cricket calendar. I think he might be right.

Talking of commentators, I have been pleased to hear the Indian media folks enthusing about how much good having all those foreign players is doing for the Indian game. They are forever saying how much young Indian cricketers, particularly those lucky enough to get into the IPL squads, will be learning. If the same tournament took place in the UK you can bet that the commentators would be forever complaining about how the overseas players were denying English players a living and ruining England’s chances of competing internationally. Poms whinge. It is in their genes.

I’ve just been watching Dhoni hit 37 runs off the last two overs in Bangalore. Ouch!

The other game today was in Mohali and the Delhi batting line-up failed to fire, giving the Kings a fairly comfortable target of 159. Simon Katich and Yuraj Singh steered the home side to victory. That means that only the Super Kings are still unbeaten. The Royals are still second in the table, but Kolkata and Delhi have a game in hand and better relative run rates.

Tomorrow the Super Kings go to Bangalore, and that suggests another thumping for the hapless Royal Challengers. I hope that Vijay Mallya isn’t rushing back from Barcelona to see the game. His team is looking awfully like Adrian Sutil’s F1 car.

There are, however, big changes in the team rosters, because the most of Australians have to leave for international duty. That means no more Hayden, Ponting, Symonds, Huseey, Katich or Lee. Gilchrist, McGrath and Warne, however, are all retired and can stay in India. The Super Kings have Stephen Fleming to come in, but losing Hayden and Hussey will leave a big hole in their side. Ditto the Royals with Shane Watson.

Mumbai Indians moved to a brand new ground today. Yes, Mumbai now has two cricket stadiums that dwarf anything to be found in England. Another change was that the cheerleaders were demurely covered up so as not to further offend local politicians. But there was still no Tendulkar, Harbhajan was suspended for losing his temper with Sreesanth in the last game, and there was still no win.

The bowlers set up the win for the Chargers. RP Singh, in particular, with 2-15 off his 4 overs, was very economical. With a target of only 155 to chase, you might have thought that the Chargers would take it easy. But if you did then you would have reckoned without Adam Gilchrist. He reached his century off just 42 balls, and ended up with 109 off 48, including nine 4s and ten 6s. At the other end Laxman had little to do except give his partner the strike and admire. When Gilly reached his hundred Herschelle Gibbs, recently arrived from South Africa to join the Chargers, could be seem making “we’re not worthy” signs from the dugout.

In the end, a 10 wicket win. The Chargers are on their way at last. There will doubtless be dancing in the streets in Hyderabad at last. But the gloom over Mumbai is getting ever deeper.

One of the good things about the Willow TV coverage of the IPL is that you can watch games on replay. So I’ve had last night’s game on in the background while I’ve been researching electricity transmission congestion. The top-of-the-table clash between the Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders promised to be very close, but as it turned out the Knight Riders went down with barely a whimper. McCullum started off well enough, but when he holed out to Oram for 24 and Ponting fell next ball their innings faltered and never recovered. Matty Hayden guided the Super Kings to victory with ease.

So the Knight Riders lose their unbeaten record, but Chennai maintain theirs. The only other unbeaten team is Sehwag’s Delhi Daredevils, who travel to Mohali to face the Punjab Kings tomorrow. Meanwhile the Royals, rather improbably, are second in the table.

The Rajasthan Royals went to Bangalore today and pulled off a magnificent victory. Warnie won the toss and put the Challengers in to bat. Shane Watson duly did the business, taking two quick wickets, and Bangalore never recovered. Needing only around 7 and over to win, Smith and Watson were able to steer the side home comfortably. The commentators were talking enthusiastically about how well the Royals – a weak side on paper – were working together as a team and approaching their games with energy, enthusiasm and discipline. Guess they must have a good captain. And a good coach. Yep, God is doing both jobs (though he has Jeremy Snape to help with the latter who I’m sure deserves much of the credit).

Today was the battle of the basement as the winless Kings and Indians went head-to-head in Mohali. There were so many bugs there you could have mistaken the venue for Dodgers Stadium, but the crowds were bigger and didn’t go home half way through the game. Almost all of the Kings top stars delivered: Sangakkara with the bat; Lee, Pathan and Chawla with the ball, and Yuvraj with what is probably the best catch of the tournament so far. Sangakkara got man of the match, but for my money it was Brett Lee’s opening burst that set the standard for the Kings side. He was fired up, and he dragged the side along with him.

And yeah, if I had Preity Zinta’s money, I’d want to buy Brett Lee too…

The all-star Chargers batting line-up finally fired today. Put in to bat by Warne, they amassed 214, thanks largely to Andrew Symonds hitting the fastest hundred of the tournament so far. Beating that would require the second highest run chase in Twenty20 history. The Royals, let by Yusuf Pathan and the newly arrived Graeme Smith, set off after the target at a great rate. However, some fabulous bowling from Afridi (3-28 off his 4 overs) and a good over from RP Singh put the pressure back on. The Royals needed 17 of the last over, with bowler Pankaj Singh on strike. He managed 2 then 1, which left Warnie needing to hit 14 off 4 balls.

One four, two sixes, job done. There’s a reason we call him “God”.

And he’s a Victorian.

I see from the BBC that Allen Stanford thinks Twenty20 cricket can be the biggest sport in the world in 10 years time. Given the huge crowds we are seeing in India, that’s a very interesting concept. The real issues that I see are that outside India and Australia the grounds just aren’t big enough to bring in the money. Also, although some nations that are currently not big cricket players are starting to take it up with enthusiasm, it takes a long time to build up a core of top-quality players.

Mumbai came close to overhauling a score of 208 today. Chennai fans will doubtless hail the big hitting of Matty Hayden, but for me the star of the game was Manpreet Gony, a young Indian fast bowler. While much more famous names were getting clouted all over the park, he bowled his 4 overs for just 18 runs, including a maiden and the prized wicket of Jayasuriya. I just wish I’d been able to be there for the end.

A comfortable victory for the Daredevils today. Those that saw it will remember Sehwag’s blistering 94 off only 41 balls, but the victory was set up for him by his bowlers. It may yet turn out that Glenn McGrath is the most valuable player in the tournament.

Much happiness in Jaipur today as the Royals register their first win thanks to fine bowling from Mr. Warne and fine batting from Mr. Watson. The Royals side still looks a little weak in both batting and bowling. Smith and Khan, whom Warnie says are due to arrive soon, will strengthen the batting considerably. Watson isn’t really up to leading the attack, but Trivedi bowled very well today. I have been particularly impressed with young Jadeja. He top-scored in Delphi and gave superb support to Watson today. Not bad for a 19-year-old.

Today seems to have been the day for close games in the IPL. Overnight the Knight Riders continued on their winning ways in a low-scoring game again the Deccan Chargers. It must have been a fairly difficult batting wicket. VVS Laxman’s Chargers, a team containing Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds, only managed 110. The Knight Riders also struggled, with both McCullum and Ponting falling cheaply. However, David Hussey saved the day, bringing the Knight Riders home with an over to spare.

I woke up in time to see Shaun Pollock power through the final overs to help Mumbai set a target of 165. The Royal Challengers were unlucky to lose Shiv Chanderpaul early on when a ball flicked off an edge onto the inside of his knee. Some good catching by Mumbai and superb bowling by Pollock put on a lot of pressure, but this time the partnership of Kallis and Boucher worked as planned for the Challengers and the brought home the win with just 2 balls left.

You know, huge scores are all very well, but they can result in one-sided games. I’d much rather see a close game.

Well, that wasn’t what we wanted. Warnie won the toss and elected to bat, but the Royals only managed 129/8 in their 20 overs. With McGrath, Vettori and Maharoof, the Daredevils have a very good bowling attack (and the Royals were missing Smith, Khan, Langer and Mascarehenas). Still, a good bowling performance might still rescue the game, or at least provide an interesting finish.

Update: Pretty much as expected. Easy win for the Daredevils. Ah well, there’s always the next game.

I woke up this morning to find the Punjab Kings on their way to a very creditable 207. Unfortunately for them, the Chennai Super Kings had made 240, thanks in no small part to Mike Hussey’s 114. Told you these Chennai boys were good, didn’t I.