As I mentioned yesterday, I have been rather too busy of late to bring you regular reports on this year’s Indian Premier League. We are now past the half way point in the league matches, and things are starting to settle down. Here’s a quick look at the state of play.

The current league leaders are Sehwag’s Delhi Daredevils, though it is actually the Sri Lankan, Dilshan, who has been performing best with the bat this year. Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings are also doing well, thanks to Matty Hayden being the top scoring batsman in the league at the moment. The most improved team are Adam Gilchrist’s Deccan Chargers, with Gilly himself leading the effort.

As for the Royals, they are clearly missing Shane Watson (on duty with Australia) and Sohail Tanvir (presumably due to the Pakistani government’s ban on their players taking part). They have lost three games, and had one washed out. More recently, however, they have turned things round. Superb batting by Yusuf Pathan saw the team to unexpected wins over the Daredevils and Chargers, and their most recent games, against the Kings XI Punjab and the Bangalore Royal Challengers, have been blowouts. Pathan was also the key player when a game went to the Twenty20 version of extra innings, a “super over” played against Kolkata when the teams ended their regulation innings on 150 runs each. I’m now starting to feel confident that they’ll make the semi-finals, and if they do that then a second title is by no means impossible.