4th week in the league and already it’s the end of road for two teams, Bangalore and Hyderabad. For the semi-finals, Rajasthan Royals have confirmed their slot by beating the team Bangalore yesterday. That leaves the stage open for the three more semi-finalists. Chennai SuperKings with six wins are first in contention for the remaining semi-final slots.

Team Standings:
Rajasthan Royals are in their own league leading the points table for yet another week. Mumbai Indians have made entry into the top four after back to back victories against Chennai and Kolkata, whereas Bangalore Royal Challengers seem to have satisfied with their last position. Nothing seems to be going right for Delhi Daredevils at the moment, in yesterday’s rain affected match they to lost to Mohali by D/L method.

The return of Vintage Cricket:
The first phase of the league was totally dominated by batsmen. Now in phase-2, things have changed drastically. On Tuesday at Eden Gardens, Kolkata Knight Riders successfully defended a score of around 120, courtesy excellent pace bowling by Shoaib Akthar. Playing his first IPL match, the Rawalpindi Express took 4 wickets of Delhi Devils in the opening spell itself. His efforts were complemented by good support bowling and good fielding(with direct-hits). Ending all speculations, Sachin Tendulkar made his IPL debut against Chennai Superkings. His return to the team was shadowed by blazing batting by Sanath Jayasuriya. The Sri-Lankan veteran destroyed the Chennai bowling attack in his typical flick and cut shots. His innings truly marked the return of vintage cricket.

Contest between bat and ball:
The ‘batsmen dominated game’ tag for the format is gradually changing. This week too we had some magical bowling spells. Bowling last over against the Deccan Chargers, Amit Mishra sealed the victory for his side by taking 3 wickets in consecutive balls. In fact it was the second hat-trick of the league. Sohail Tanveer continued to deliver superlative performance. Defending target of 197, the wrong-foot bowler ensured victory for his side by bowling a deadly spell of 3-0-6-2.

Controversies:
BCCI announced its decision on Harbhajan’s slapping case by banning the offie for 4 ODIs, given that he is already suspended from rest of IPL. Some former Indian players(Sandip Patil) have raised concerns about the system that how a person can be given two different punishments for the same mistake ?. Well, being into the game run by corporate houses bring about the need for performance. UB group chairman, Vijay Mallya voiced his opinion against captain of Royal Challengers - Rahul Dravid. He has confessed that trusting ex-Indian captain in matters of team selection was his biggest mistake. It seems he had nodded for Dravid’s selection when he himself had a separate list. This created flutters in the media and many Indian players have either chose not to comment or to make diplomatic statements. Only Kumble and Laxman have supported Dravid, quite obvious because as they are in the same boat as that of Dravid. Now it is high time for Dravid to ponder upon why he had selected a test-like-team. Let’s hope that he takes wise voluntary decision in this matter, just as he did when he opted out being selected for Twenty20 world cup team and asked Sachin, Saurav to follow the suit.

Crucial next week:
By the end of next week the remaining semi-final slots will get confirmed. The contests will get more thrilling as the teams will fight tooth and nail to emerge victorious. Let’s hope that the rain gods remain fair and we should witness crucial matches played for full quota of overs.