There was to be no fairytale ending for the Deccan Chargers’ fans. Gifted a final home game that actually mattered to their opponents, the Chargers surrendered limply once again. As usual, most of their runs were scored by their Indian players rather than by their high-paid foreign stars – Venugopal Rao has been particularly impressive throughout. And a total of 147 was never much of a problem for Chennai to overhaul. So the Super Kings are safe in the semi-finals at last, and the journalists of the Deccan Chronicle have one last opportunity to vent their fury on their under-performing team.

That win also means that Mumbai are definitely out of the tournament. The one point from the washed out game means that Delhi will finish ahead of Mumbai even if they both win the same number of games. That’s a shame because it means that tomorrow’s game in Bangalore is now being played only for pride.

Another knife edge game in the IPL today. The result was largely irrelevant to the Royals, save that they wanted to keep their 100% home record and their momentum going into the finals. No Graeme Smith in the line-up today, but hopefully he was just resting. Mumbai, on the other hand, were desperate for a win to keep their hopes alive.

Warne won the toss and elected to field. The wicket proved difficult to score on, and the Rajasthan bowlers did a good job of restricting Jayasuriya and Tendulkar. Pollock went first ball again, which did his team no favors at all. It should have been an easy game, except that Shane Watson leaked 25 runs in the final over. I thought at the time it might cost us the game.

The Royals innings followed a similar pattern with none of the batsmen able to stamp their authority on the game. Consequently, when it came down to the final overs, the scores were pretty much level. Rajasthan needed 32 to win off the last 12 balls, and the fate of the team lay in the hands of two largely unknown Indian batsmen, Niraj Patel and 19-year-old Ravindra Jadeja. This, I suspect, was just what Warne and Snape wanted – a baptism of fire for their less-famous players in a match that didn’t count. One team or the other would crack under the pressure, and in the end it was Mumbai. With the Royals needing 3 to win off the last ball, Fernando first bowled a wide, and then was party, with Jayasuriya, to some panicked fielding that allowed the Royals batsmen to scamper through for 2 runs to win the game.

This, ultimately, is what Twenty20 is all about: pressure. Mumbai have lost three close games on the trot. They ought to be in the semi-finals, but they threw all three games away because they cracked in the final overs. The Royals, meanwhile, cruise serenely on, and every close game that they win reinforces the positive message that their captain and coaches have been trying to instill. Now they have proved to themselves that they can win even when their big guns don’t fire. It is very impressive.

Today’s second match in the IPL was of no great importance in the standings. Punjab were already guaranteed a place in the semi-finals; Kolkata had no chance. But the Prince of Kolkata is a very proud and very combative man. The one thing you could bet on was that Sourav Ganguly was going to go down fighting. Besides, there was Bollywood pride at stake – Preity Zinta against Shah Rukh Khan. This was a game that was going to be hard fought.

The Kings XI batted first, with Marsh and Sangakkara doing their usual good work at the top of the order. A total of 174 was going to take some getting, especially against the Punjab bowling attack. And so it seemed for a long time. Most of the Knight Riders’ batting went cheaply. Sreesanth and Chawla again picked up wickets. But Ganguly would not give up, and eventually he got help. Umar Gul came in with the score on 106-6, and immediately smashed James Hopes for two big sixes. Ganguly then took a hand. Off three overs Chawla had figures of 2-18, but his fourth doubled the run tally as Ganguly smashed him all around the park. Gul then set about Sreesanth’s final over; another 14 runs on the board. VRV Singh was a little cannier, tempting Gul into a lofted shot that dropped into Powar’s hands. And eventually it came down to just the ending that the Bollywood scriptwriters would have wanted: 15 to win off the last over, and Ganguly on strike. This being Bollywood, there was no doubt about the outcome. Two more huge sixes, with a two in between, and the Kolkata captain was able to hit the winning run and ride off into the sunset. His team was out, but he had fought to the last.

From the Royals point of view, of course, it is good to see the Kings’ confidence get a bit of a shaking prior to the playoffs.

It has been an interesting day for Vijay Mallya. He, of course, is out in Monaco, about which I’m saying nothing as Kevin has the race on tape to watch when he gets home. I can, however, report that the Bangalore Royal Challengers have registered another victory. The Deccan Chargers batted first, with Gilchrist and Gibbs getting them off to an excellent start. Sadly the rest of the batting order could not maintain the pace, and the Chargers only managed 165. No one in the Bangalore side got a big score, but Kallis, ul-Haq, Dravid, White and Akhil all contributed, and the Royal Challengers brought home the victory with an over to spare. That loss consigns the Hyderabad team to last place in the table. Goodness only what they’ll be writing in the Deccan Chronicle tomorrow.

Today’s game between Mumbai and Delhi was every bit as exciting as it promised to be. Both teams desperately needed to win, and the match see-sawed back and fore. Jayasuriya got Mumbai off to an excellent start with 66 off 42 balls. Delhi then managed to peg the Mumbai batsmen down, but Robin Uthappa, making up for his failure in the last game, hit 46 off 23 balls to take Mumbai to a defensible 176. When they got rid of Sehwag and Gambhir early Mumbai must have thought they were in with a chance, but the rest of the Delhi batting dug deep. Dinesh Karthik was man of the match for his 56*, but Delhi still needed 8 to win off the last over. As it was, Maharoof got them home with one ball to spare.

Delhi are now 3rd in the table, and have completed all of their games. But both Chennai (one game away against the Chargers) and Mumbai (away games against the Royals and Royal Challengers) could overhaul them. The problem for Mumbai is that they have to win both games, and coming away from Jaipur with a win is going to be very hard indeed.

Fabulous entertainment in Chennai today. The Royals batted first and massed a whopping 211, thanks largely to 91 off 51 balls by Graeme Smith. Chennai did a great job of trying to chase the target, and very nearly got there. Warne’s 2-35 off his four overs were crucial in slowing them down, because when you are scoring at that rate losing a wicket is a real problem. Credit is due also to Pankaj Singh, who gave up only 30 from his 4 overs, and to Tanvir who took on the key role of bowing the final over. Chennai only needed 15 to win, but Tanvir held his nerve, giving up only 3 runs, and taking two wickets as the batsmen got increasingly desperate. That’s just the sort of really tough challenge the Royals needed going into the finals. Next up, the crucial match between Delhi and Mumbai.

It was a slightly difficult day at the office in Mohali today. For once the Deccan Chargers’ batting line-up worked more or less as planned, with Gilchrist, Gibbs and Sharma scoring 144 between them. A final total of 175 would be very challenging for most sides to chase. Not so the Kings XI. Marsh and Sangakkara got them off to an excellent start, and though they faltered a little along the way the panic all came from the Chargers. Scott Styris in particular will rue being hit for 16 in the nineteenth over, including two sixes. I’m very impressed with little Piyush Chawla. He’s being touted as the future of Indian spin bowling, and certainly seems very capable, but he has proved a cool and competent batsman as well. For a tiny nineteen-year-old he hits very big indeed.

Those of you who think that cricket is a soft game needed to be watching the afternoon session at Old Trafford today. It saw a magnificent display of aggressive fast bowling from Jimmy Anderson. Ross Taylor coped well with it, limbo dancing under the short-pitched balls where necessary, and using the pace on the ball to help it to the boundary otherwise. Daniel Flynn, on the other hand, didn’t have the same degree of judgment. He tried to hook one that was headed for his nose… and missed. Fortunately his helmet grill took most of the impact, but he still lost a tooth and wisely went off for a bit of medical attention. That brought in Jacob Oram who, at 6′ 7″, finds it difficult to get out of the way. A few balls later Anderson hit him on the side of the helmet, and in the next over rapped him on the gloves twice. But Oram is a tough nut, and he hung in there, taking the bruises, until rain forced the players off for an early tea. Splendid stuff. None of this namby-pamby getting a free base for getting hit.

Oh my, really bad luck for Delhi and Kolkata. Their game today was washed out. That means that Kolkata now cannot qualify for the semi-finals. Delhi are still in with a chance. If they can win their final game against Mumbai, and the Indians don’t win both their other two games, then Delhi will go through. Mumbai need either to beat Delhi, or to beat both Bangalore and Rajasthan. All of those games are away. Sehwag might just still fancy his chances, but Tendulkar and his team have their fate very much in their own hands. Conceivably both could go through if Chennai lose both of their remaining matches (against the Royals and Chargers).

Today’s other match in the IPL should have been a formality. The increasingly demoralized Royal Challengers managed only 126 in their innings, and at 60-0 off 9 overs the Chennai Super Kings were cruising towards victory and a place in the semi-finals. Then Parthiv Patel got out; Dhoni came in to finish things off, and got himself out; panic set in. Wily old Kumble tied the Super Kings down with a fine spell of 3-14. And somehow, from a position of utter dominance, Chennai contrived to lose the game by 14 runs. Praveen Kumar showed just how to bowl a final over, conceding only 1 run. I’m delighted for Dravid who hasn’t had much help from his players along the way. Is it possible that Chennai will choke in their other two games, letting both Delhi and Mumbai into the semi-finals?

Wow. Just Wow! That was one of the craziest games of cricket I have ever seen.

Backtrack. The Punjab Kings came to Mumbai looking to cement their place in the semi-finals against a Mumbai team that has been performing better and better and needed a win themselves to keep their hopes alive. Punjab’s two young Australians, Shaun Marsh and Luke Pomersbach, did a fine job for their team, putting on 133 for the second wicket and helping establish a very competitive target of 189.

Interviewed at the start of the Mumbai innings, Preity Zinta revealed that she lives in Mumbai and is a huge Tendulkar fan. She can’t have been too upset, therefore, when the Little Master set about providing a masterclass in batting to help his team stay in the match. Some big hitting by Jayasuriya and Dwayne Smith provided the acceleration around Tendulkar’s solid foundation. For most of the game to looked like Mumbai would make it. But when you have to score at almost 10 an over you can’t afford to falter, especially late on.

The turning point came when Irfan Pathan bowled a bouncer to Robin Uthappa, hitting the batsman on the front of his helmet. Uthappa was OK to continue, but his brains must have been shaken up because he played a couple of poor shots and then got Tendulkar run out. At this point, panic set in. The normally reliable Shaun Pollock played a silly shot and was out first ball, Uthappa holed out in the deep, and it was all down to the tail.

Some good bowling by the Kings meant that Mumbai needed 19 to win off the last over, but they were by no means panic free themselves. VRV Singh’s first ball was a beamer that was called No Ball and went for six. The next ball also went deep, was dropped on the boundary, and went for four. There was more panic. There were silly run-outs. And the game ended with Yuvraj, not trusting his throw, running in and diving headlong into the stumps to run out the last Mumbai batsman off the last ball of the game to give Punjab the win by just one run.

And what does all of this madness mean? Well, Punjab look pretty safe. They need just one point from 3 games to ensure a semi-final berth. With a home game against the Chargers to come, that’s almost a foregone conclusion. Chennai also look safe as they have games against the two bottom teams yet to play. The final spot will be between Delhi and Mumbai, and it may all be decided when they play each other in Delhi on Saturday.

Another thoroughly professional performance by the Royals today as they booked their place in the semi-finals. Kolkata desperately needed a win to keep their hopes alive, but none of their batsmen could quite get going, and 147 seemed a competitive total only because the wicket seemed quite difficult to score on. And so it proved when Rajasthan batted. Asnodkar, Smith and Watson all went cheaply, as did Tanvir who had been promoted up the order to get quick runs when Asnodkar failed. But one of the great strengths of the Royals side is that they don’t panic. Mohammad Kaif and Yusuf Pathan batted beautifully for the victory – Pathan striking 48* off only 18 balls. If the game had gone on any longer he would have comfortably broken his record for the fastest 50 of the tournament.

I wrote yesterday about how the sides with the biggest-hitting batsmen were not doing well in the tournament. Today I thought I’d take a look at the leading wicket takers. RP Singh of the Deccan Chargers is top of the pile, but behind him come Tanvir and Warne of the Royals, and Pathan and Sreesanth of the Punjab Kings. Those happen to be the two teams that are heading the table. I don’t think it could be any clearer than that. Having top-scoring batsmen like Sehwag and Gambhir is all very well, but if you want to win at Twenty20 you need bowlers who can take wickets.

And finally, if you find all of this cricket boring, here’s a fun commercial for you from Nike. I particularly like the elephant and the umpiring statue.

There was another predictable result in the IPL today as the Delhi Daredevils handed out the latest thrashing for Bangalore. The Royals Challengers batted first and the innings would have been a complete disaster if not for a battling 52 from little Goswami, their reserve wicket keeper, and Misbah-ul-Haq smashing 24 off the final over. As it was, 155 looked almost competitive, unless Sehwag and Gamhir got a start. Well, guess what happened. By the time they were both out Delhi already had 100 on the board and they hadn’t finished the 9th over. From there Delhi strolled to a 5-wicket win.
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As expected, Mumbai disposed of the Chargers fairly easily today. They are starting to look good, but they do have a fairly tough final few games. I expect things will all be getting a bit nervous in the various team HQs.

Well there’s something different. Yesterday we had a game in Delhi abandoned due to rain. Today a match in Kolkata was abandoned due to a dust storm. This worked in favor of the Chennai Super Kings who won on Duckworth/Lewis. Actually, however, they should probably credit their win to Makhaya Ntini who took one of those odd hat tricks much beloved of statisticians. Ntini dismissed Ganguly with the final ball of his third over, and was then taken off. When he came back again some time later he dismissed Debabrata Das (breaking an 86-run partnership) and the dangerous David Hussey with his first two balls.
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It has been a rainy day all round at the cricket. Most of the day’s play at Lords was lost, and even in Delhi rain caused chaos. The Daredevils batted first, and Sehwag and Gambhir seemed to have set up a good foundation. Then Gambhir got out, and the rain came down. Much confusion later, the Kings XI were chasing 123 off 11 overs. Some big hitting by Yuvraj, Jayawardene and young Luke Pomersbach got them ahead of the rate, which is just as well as the rain came down again after 8 overs. Punjab were declared the winners on D/L, and they stay only one game back of the Royals in the table.
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Another emphatic win for the Royals today. Bangalore’s performances have been bad enough as it is, but almost everything good that the team has done to date has been done by Mark Boucher, and with him sidelined by an injury no one was expecting the Royal Challengers to put up a fight. Rajasthan batted first, with Asnodkar and Smith getting them off to a superb start, and Watson helping pile on the agony when Asnodkar got one thick edge too many. The wicket looked quite difficult to score on, and yet the Royals registered 197-1 in their 20 overs, thanks in large part to some abject fielding by the Challengers. The Bangalore resistance didn’t last long. They were 5-3 in no time, at which point I switched over to oggle at Nadal. Apparently Dravid played a swashbuckling 75* to further embarrass his teammates.
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One of the big surprises of the new test series is that Tuffers is a lot smarter than he makes out. His understanding of the game is well ahead of a lot of the commentary team, but also he’s very astute. Just now someone (CMJ I think, but it might have been Bloers, I wasn’t paying a lot of attention at the start) was in the process of saying something deeply sexist about the English women’s cricket team, and Tuffers gently and firmly turned the conversation away from physical appearance and onto cricketing prowess. I’m impressed.