IPL Season 2010 - All Set For Semi Finals At DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai

Finally we have got the four semi finalist for this year's IPL. 56 league matches are over. Mumbai Indians comprehensively tops the table with 20 points. Then Deccan Chargers at the 2nd position with 16 points, they played some fantastic cricket for the last couple of weeks and won 5 matches in a row to ensure a place for semi final... really hats off to them. For the last two semi final berth, there was a fight between four teams; all the four teams (RCB, CSK, DD & KKR) ended with 14 points. But CSK & RCB made it to the last four with better net run rate.

This is the final point table after the last match of the league.

Team	P	W	L	NRR	Points
MI	14	10	4	+1.084	20
DC	14	8	6	-0.297	16
CSK	14	7	7	+0.274	14
RCB	14	7	7	+0.219	14
DD	14	7	7	+0.021	14
KKR	14	7	7	-0.341	14
RR	14	6	8	-0.514	12
KXP	14	4	10	-0.478	8

KKR played their best cricket for the last couple of games and defeated two strong teams Rajasthan Royals and table topper Mumbai Indians; still they couldn't find any place in the final four courtesy crucial lose against Kings XI Punjab after scoring 200 runs in 20 overs. Delhi Daredevils again disappointed, in the final match yesterday against Deccan Chargers, they couldn't chase down even 145 runs at their home ground. On the other hand, if you see the performance of CSK, they chased down a difficult total of 192 against Kings XI Punjab and qualified for the semi final courtesy superb finish by their captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
So, two big semi finals are coming up; first on 21st, between Mumbai Indians & Royal Challengers Bangalore and the second on 22nd, between Deccan Chargers & Chennai Super Kings.

Mumbai Indians - The First Semi Finalist of The IPL-3

Finally IPL-3 has got its first semi finalist after 45 matches. Yes, the Mumbai Indians are the first semi finalist of this season's IPL. They are still at the top of the table with 16 points in 11 matches. They have reached the semi final of the IPL for the first time in three occasions. Today they have defeated Rajasthan Royals comprehensively by 37 runs. Mumbai Indian's captain Sachin Tendulkar's unbeaten 89 not only brought him the Orange Cap back but also knocked the Rajasthan Royals out at their home ground, Jaipur for the first time in IPL history. Now, only 11 matches to play before semi final; the points table looks very tight. Only one team, KingsXI Punjab is already out of the race; but the remaining six teams... my goodness, really it's a very tight situation out there...any three teams can make it to the last four out of these six. The KingsXI Punjab has already started spoiling the party of many teams...and many more to come. Today they have defeated Delhi Daredevils quite comfortably by 7 wickets. The next 11 matches are going to be really interesting. This is the beauty of IPL.
IPL-3 ... superb... really the best tournament... no doubt about that.

Look at the points table after 45 matches

Team	P	W	L	NRR	Points
MI	11	8	3	+1.040	16
RCB	11	6	5	+0.443	12
DD	11	6	5	+0.206	12
RR	12	6	6	-0.288	12
CSK	11	5	6	+0.107	10
KKR	11	5	6	-0.417	10
DC	11	5	6	-0.539	10
KingsXI	12	4	8	-0.484	8

Magician Warne Does The Miracle For Rajasthan Royals

Today we have witnessed one more exciting match of this season's IPL, between RR (Rajasthan Royals) and defending champion DC (Deccan Chargers). RR clinched an unbelievable victory from nowhere and maintained their IPL record of always defending a 150-plus total. The score was 112-3 in 13.4 overs, DC was cruising towards victory, only 48 runs away from their 4th victory with 7 wickets in hand; then the old magician of cricket history Shane Warne started showing his magic. Warne produced his T20 career best figure of 4 for 21, Rohit Sharma's heroic 44 ball 73 went in vain. DC ended their innings just 3 runs away from the victory on the penultimate ball.
This year's IPL is really going well, it has been getting more and more interesting as the day progresses. After 36 matches completed, only one team is sitting almost safe i.e. MI (Mumbai Indians). And another team is also tension free, they are almost out of the race for semi final, i.e. KingXI Punjab. The rest six teams are really fighting with each other for the semi final, keep on changing their places almost after every match.
Yesterday we had witnessed the biggest upset of the tournament so far when KingsXI Punjab successfully chased a huge total of 200 against KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) and spoiled their party. The Gayle storm which was seen during the first innings, completely overshadowed by an unbeaten 110 run off 59 balls by Mahela Jayawardene. KKR lost the match after scoring a record 33 runs in one over.


Brief Score of match between RR and DC:

Rajasthan Royals 159 (Watson 58, Fazal 36, RP Singh 3-17) beat Deccan Chargers 157 (Rohit 73, Warne 4-21) by two runs

Brief Score of match between KingsXI Punjab and KKR:

Kings XI Punjab 204 for 2 (Jayawardene 110*) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 200 for 3 (Gayle 88) by eight wickets

Current Standings after 36 matches:

Team	P	W	L	NRR	Points
MI	8	7	1	+1.412	14
DD	9	6	3	+0.397	12
RCB	9	5	4	+0.428	10
RR	10	5	5	-0.394	10
CSK	9	4	5	+0.042	8
KKR	9	4	5	-0.444	8
DC	9	3	6	-0.743	6
KingsXI	9	2	7	-0.504	4