But can any team really challenge the Mumbai Indians or the Chennai Super Kings?

In the 14 editions of the IPL, these two franchises have won the title a collective 9 times!

Mumbai is leading the race with 5 IPL wins, while Chennai are the reigning champions.

Will these two teams dominate the proceedings once again?

Both these champion teams have a great rivalry too, which will be reignited once again when the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League kicks off.

If you want a dig at an IPL prediction, you would definitely go with one of these two champion teams.

A team that can emerge as a strong contender in 2022, however, is Mumbai's traditional rivals the Delhi Capitals.

They beat Mumbai both times during the 2021 edition, and this year have a number of players among their ranks that can take away matches single handedly.

Starting with their captain Rishabh Pant to their foreign contingent of David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, and Tim Seifert.

The new franchise, Lucknow Super Giants, also look like a very strong team who can pose a threat to the Mumbai and Chennai.

Lucknow have installed KL Rahul as their captain. KL Rahul has been one of the leading run scorers in the last two editions of the IPL.

Even though it is Lucknow's first ever IPL this year, they are a strong outfit.

Players like Evin Lewis, Quinton de Kock, Jason Holder, Marcus Stoinis, and Krunal Pandya are T20 stalwarts and can take the game away from anyone on their day.

The other new franchise, Gujarat Titans, can also be a surprise package.

They surprised everyone when they announced Hardik Pandya as their captain. Hardik Panday has never led any side in any format ever before, and this IPL 2022 will be his first stint leading a team.

Pandya is one of the most confident cricketers around and he will surely instill the same in his team. I believe. they will be a force to reckon with in this IPL.

IPL is undoubtedly one of the most exciting T20 leagues around and we can anticipate some thrilling contests when it kicks off at the end of this month.

The world's premier T20 competition, the IPL, will be starting its 13th season in a month's time.

When the 6-week extravaganza gets underway, all cricket around the world will come to a standstill and all eyes will be on the world's best players competing for the ultimate T20 crown.

Like last year, 8 teams will take part in IPL 2020, which starts on 27 March 2020 and goes on till the middle of May.

Six teams have won the previous 12 editions of the IPL with Mukesh Ambani's Mumbai Indians winning it 4 times. Chennai Super Kings, who missed out two seasons, have won the IPL three times; while Shahrukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders have won it twice.

The other three editions have been won by Rajasthan Royals, Deccan Chargers, and Sunrisers Hyderabad.

LEADING BATSMEN
T20 is a batsman's game and the IPL has seen some scintillating knocks over the past decade and a bit.

The first ever match played in IPL history, in 2008, witnessed a Brendan McCullum classic as he butchered the Royal Challengers Bangalore's attack amassing an unbeaten 158 that included 13 sixes and 10 fours.

That remained the highest score ever made in the IPL till Chris Gayle smashed his way to an unbeaten 175 in 2013. Gayle's knock comprised 17 sixes and 13 fours.


Chris Gayle is among the leading run scorers as well in the IPL, but it is no surprise as to who tops that list.

None other than the King himself, Virat Kohli!

Kohli is only one of two batsmen who have piled on over 5,000 runs in the IPL. The other being Suresh Raina.

There are only 8 other batsmen who have over 4,000 runs in the IPL.


There is another batting accolade that Chris Gayle has the honor of holding - the most number of sixes hit in the IPL.

Gayle is right there at the top with 326 sixes and he has a lead of over a 100 sixes over the next batsman on the list!

More than a 100 sixes than anyone else playing this T20 league!

What a legend this Chris Gayle is.


Gayle's name also makes the list when you look at batsmen who have scored the most runs in one season of IPL; however like the list of batsman with most runs in the history of the IPL, Kohli leads this list too.

He knocked a legendary 973 runs in IPL 2016!


Take a look at today match predictions and decide for yourself on who you will be placing your money on. Chris Gayle is a T20 superstar and a cricket legend. He is a key man to have in your team in T20 cricket. Any team that has Gayle in it will always be a favorite on the day.

Also take a look at this video for match predictions.


LEADING BOWLERS
It is a batsman's game no doubt but bowlers who can check the run flow are worth their weight in gold! Not many bowlers escape the onslaught of T20 batsmen, but there are a few who have been quite successful in this format.

Spinners are among the top wicket takers in the IPL, but there is one pacer who has out done all of them and that is Lasith Malinga.


Malinga has been a T20 superstar with the ball, not only for his IPL franchise for his country too. Mumbai Indians are fortunate to have him in the ranks and he has been a key component of their 4 IPL wins, the most by any team in the IPL.

I would say that the Mumbai Indians will start IPL 2020 as favorites. They are the defending champions and have won 4 of the past 7 IPL Trophies.

The 11th season of the IPL is upon us and Cricinfo have come out with some Smart Stats that they are going to use to measure and analyze performances of batsmen and bowlers during this elite T20 league competition.

This all sounds quite interesting as it will shed some new light on how the players perform in T20 in different conditions.

But as this all unfolds in front of us, here's a look at the some basic stats from the past decade of IPL.

IPL Champions
The defending champions are Mumbai Indians who have also won the IPL title more times than any other team - thrice.


Following them, with two title wins each, are Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings, who return to the IPL after serving the two year ban.

The other three seasons have witnessed Rajasthan Royals, Deccan Chargers, and Sunrisers Hyderabad win the IPL.

Who will win IPL 2018? Various quarters suggest that this will be the most competitive IPL till date and no one team is being marked as favorite.

We will be talking about this in IPL 2020 as well when the league enters its third decade.

The IPL today is the largest T20 league in the world and its title probably the most coveted T20 title that 8 teams will be vying for starting today!

IPL's Top Batsmen
Five batsmen have scored more than 4,000 runs in IPL with Suresh Raina at the top of the list with 4,540 runs at an average of 34.1 and a strike rate of 139.1.

The others with more than 4,000 runs are Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir, and David Warner.

Among all batsmen who have scored over 1,000 runs, only Chris Gayle and David Warner average above 40, with Chris Gayle's 41.2 being the highest average.

Chris Gayle also holds the record for most number of centuries (5), most sixes (265), and highest individual score of 175* in the IPL.

Gayle also holds the record for the fastest ever 100 scored in the IPL when he smashed one of just 30 deliveries, which is also the fastest 100 scored in all T20 cricket.

Gayle is a T20 phenomenon and for a decade he has been performing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, however this season he will turn out for Kings XI Punjab.


The highest strike rate in the IPL for all batsmen with more than 1,000 runs is Glenn Maxwell's (164.4) followed by Virender Sehwag's 155.4.

The fastest 50 record is held by Yusuf Pathan and Sunil Narine, both of whom reached their 50 in just 15 deliveries.

Gayle's fastest 50 is off 17 deliveries, which is the third fastest in IPL history.

IPL's Top Bowlers
Lasith Malinga is the leading wicket taker in IPL with 154 wickets at an average of 19.01 and a strike rate of 16.6.

Malinga is miles ahead of other bowlers with a clear lead of 20 wickets over Amit Mishra who is second on the list with 134 wickets. He is followed by Harbajhan Singh (127), Piyush Chawla (126), and Dwayne Bravo (122).

Malinga's average is the best average among all bowlers with at least 40 wickets in the IPL. While Sunil Narine holds the record for the best economy rate (6.32) among all bowlers who have bowled at least 100 overs in the IPL.


The best bowling figures in the IPL belong to Sohail Tanvir whose 6-14 in the first season for the Rajasthan Royals remains the record even 10 years after.

Adam Zampa is the only other bowler to pick up a 6 wicket haul in the IPL with his 6-19 against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.


These batsmen and bowlers will be in action once again as season 11 of the IPL gets underway. It will be interesting to follow them and all the other talented cricketers that this league displays, especially with the new Smart Stats.

Let the games begin!

Majority of the Pakistani fans are not following the IPL. Most of them feel that the Pakistani players have been hard done by the BCCI and the franchises and hence it is the fans duty to boycott the league altogether.

Some of them genuinely are not interested in cricket that doesn't involve Pakistani players, while some just don't like the crash bang whallop feel of the IPL.

It is not cricket they say. It is one big party.

Some even call it a farce and believe that majority of the matches are fixed.

RP Singh's no ball the other day in RCB's match against CSK brought all those critics forward calling the match and the entire league fixed.



I would really like to know what the odds were for that match before it started, after the Bangalore innings, and near the end of the CSK innings. Betting, including online betting in India, is quite common among cricket fans and it will be really interesting to study betting patterns for this particular match.

But I tell you what. Even though there are no Pakistanis playing the IPL and even though it might be all fixed, I absolutely love the IPL.

What is there not to love?

The matches are exciting, the competition is intense, the adrenaline is pumping all the time, the crowd is into it every single second, there are sixes, fours, wickets, screaming fans, team owners either glowing with confidence of a victory or looking stressed when their team is losing grasp of the match... and so much more.

It is absolute fun!

Where else will you find two Delhi team mates fighting it out for Kolkata and Bangalore getting into a heated argument only to be separated by a common Delhi team mate?

Gambhir and Kohli would have thrown a punch or three at each other if it was not for Rajat Bhatia's interference.

And I would have absolutely loved it.

Eoin Morgan would have enjoyed it too.



Where else will you find the big screen on the ground flash "From Sir with Love" when Ravindra Jadeja sends the ball sailing into the crowds.

The tag of 'Sir' has spread like wildfire during the IPL. Something that was being used to rib Jadeja by the Twitterati and Cricket Bloggers has now become a trend among the cricketers and the commentators.



Alright lets put all fun and games aside and take a bit of a serious look at the IPL.

The Coaches
Stephen Fleming, Darren Lehmann, John Wright, Alan Donald, Steve Rixon, Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Tom Moody, Jonty Rhodes, Anil Kumble.

Those are prolific names. They have either been involved with or are involved with the franchises in the IPL. And they take their cricket damn seriously.

The IPL provides them with a platform to enhance their coaching skills, which will come to good use when they take over international teams, and it provides the players the opportunity to learn from the best.

All those men were world class cricketers who have tons of experience to pass on to players.

One just had to see Allan Donald give the Pune Warriors a briefing during the strategic timeout in the game against CSK to understand how passionately involved with the game he was.

Opportunities for New Talent
The presence of Ricky Ponting, Jonthy Rhodes, Anil Kumble, and Sachin Tendulkar in the Mumbai dressing room would be an awe inspiring one for the likes of Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik and all those fringe players in the team.

The amount they can learn by just listening to them is immense.

No other platform will provide young international players like Kevin Cooper, Chris Morris, Steve Smith, Aaron Finch, and Mitchell Marsh the sort of exposure that the IPL does.

The intensely competitive matches can only bring out the best in these players and constantly playing under pressure enhances their capabilities no end.

The same can be said for the young Indian cricketers aspiring to play for their national team. Rayudu, Mayank Agarwal, Rahane, Manprit Juneja, Vinay Kumar, Shahbaz Nadeem are just some of the names of talented cricketers that are rubbing shoulders with international stars at the IPL.

Undoubtedly they are learning and giving it their all to impress the right people to stake a claim at international cricket.

Internationals Have to be at their Best
Since the teams can play only 4 foreign players, all the international players, no matter how big, have to be at their best in every single game.

The competition for places in the XI is extremely high, which makes these international cricketers give their best increasing the overall performance levels.

Brendon McCullum, who is arguable one of the most explosive batsmen in T20 cricket is finding it difficult to break into KKR's XI because of the presence of Kallis and Morgan.

CSK can play only 4 of M Hussey, Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, Albie Morkel, Chris Morris, Ben Laughlin, Dirk Nannes, Nuwan Kulasekara, Ben Hilfenhaus, Akila Danajaya. How do you leave any of them out? Besides a couple, all the rest are sure starters for their international teams!

Have you seen the Catching?
Even if every game is fixed, the catches can't be!

There is no excuse for missing out on the absolutely magical catches that some of the players have pulled off in this IPL.

There have been many with probably Pollard and Ponting standing out.

Ponting more so because it was off the bowling of Harbhajan and watching the two celebrate together was unreal.


The skills on display are just beautiful.

IPL is cricket entertainment at its best.

76 matches are played every season and I reckon at least 50 of them are decided in the final over, out of which 20 or so off the final delivery.

That is excitement to the core.

Even if its fixed, it is one hell of a fix.

It requires special talent to ensure that the match is played out in that manner.

Seriously.

Whoever is scripting / fixing these games is a genius really for bringing out the best in all these cricketers from all around the world.

It definitely keeps me at the edge of my seat.

The best part about the IPL is that you don't really have to support any team, which for an ideal cricket fan makes watching the game even more fun as you can just purely enjoy the cricket!

I had just as much fun watching Jadeja smash 16 off the final over to win a game for CSK, as I did while watching Allan Donald celebrate like a kid when Marsh and Dinda wrecked CSK's chase.

It is just fun cricket.

How can you not watch it?

So what if there are no Pakistanis playing?

So what if it doesn't test you the way test cricket does?

So what if Dhoni has to win every time?

Forget about these minor issues and don't miss the annual cricket fun fair I say.

It is an absolutely magnificent extravaganza!

1. How Chennai SuperKings will get there

By beating Kings XI Punjab. Its quite simple for them - win the game and get to 17 points, which no other team can get.

If they lose, then they will probably also get there.

Even if Kings XI get to 16 by beating CSK, and Deccan get to 16 by beating Bangalore, CSK will be at 4th with 15.

The Royals can get to 15 points by beating KKR, but to get their Net Run Rate from -0.36 to beyond +0.93 maybe mathematically possible, but it is practically impossible.

Hence, CSK, their fans, Leela - You got nothing to worry about. In a way it might also be good that their shocking loss came before the semis.

2. How Rajasthan Royals can get there

For starters, by winning their match against the Kolkata Knight Riders. If they lose they will surely be out.

But only winning will not get them there, other results will also have to go their way - either one of the Kings XI or Deccan will have to lose their last match.

If both of them win, the Royals are out irrespective of their result against KKR.

3. How Royal Challengers Bangalore can get there

I think they have the most chances to get there, but they have 2 tough games against the Delhi Daredevils and the Deccan Chargers.

If RCB win both their matches, then will surely be through, no matter what the result of the other matches. They have a better NRR than Kings XI and victories will make that even better.

There's a possibility though that they can get to the semis even by winning 1 of their 2 matches.

For that to happen, the Royals will have to lose to KKR, and the Kings to CSK.

That way RCB will be tied on 14 points with the Kings and with a better NRR to let them through.

4. How Kings XI Punjab can get there

They can get there even if they lose but also not get there even if they win.

See how confusing this is.

If they lose to CSK, then they can get there if the Royals lose to KKR and RCB loses both its matches.

If Kings XI beat CSK, then they could still be knocked out if RCB wins both its matches.

They've got it quite tough I reckon.

5. How Deccan Chargers can get there

If they beat RCB then they will surely be through.

But if they lose, then they will be able to get to the semis if Kings XI lose to CSK and the Royals lose to KKR.

Actually, even if one of the above results holds true, then Deccan can get their despite losing to RCB, provided that RCB had lost to Delhi.

See how intense the final few days of the group stages are?

No one will be slacking for sure.

Its going to be intense!

Delhi lot, you have nothing to worry about besides thinking who you would like to play in the semis. Maybe you can manipulate some results and make money while you're at it - Banjo Cassim is around I hear.

This is what the best graded assignment looked like:

Kolkata Knight Riders team mates Ricky Ponting and Chris Gayle walked out to the middle for the toss. Gayle won the toss and sent Australia in, a decision that soon backfired.

Just before the start of play Shahrukh Khan, owner of the Knight Riders, was seen discussing with his captain, Saurav Ganguly, about how he felt captaining 2 international captains in the IPL.

Shaun Marsh, the Kings XI opener and leading run scorer of the IPL, made his much awaited debut in Australian colors.

He opened the innings with Shane Watson, who was the IPL player of the tournament and one of the backbones of the Rajasthan Royals' successful IPL campaign.

In the absence of Matthew Hayden, who is missing the Windies tour due to an injury sustained during his stint with the Chennai Super Kings, Marsh and Watson provided Australia with a cracking start posting a run a ball 75 run opening partnership.

Watson fell in the 13th over, after scoring 31 of 27 balls, as he was trapped in front to an incoming delivery by Dwayne Bravo, the Mumbai Indians allrounder who flew in at the start of this series in Mukesh Ambani's private jet.

Marsh though continued from where he left of in the IPL scoring a 97 ball 81 on debut that had Kings XI owner Preity Zinta jumping for joy in front of her 60" Plasma screen in her Mumbai residence.

Marsh later confirmed that he had recieved hugs and kisses via SMS from Ms. Zinta and when we spoke to her she mentioned that when she saw Marsh's majestic straight drive in the 1st over and exquisite cover drive in the 3rd, she knew she was in for something special.

Marsh was unlucky to miss out on a debut 100, which would have been a first for an Australian ODI debutant, as he was caught by the Knight Riders' Gayle off Darren Sammy, who hasn't yet attracted an IPL franchise.

Ricky Ponting, who had joined Marsh at the fall of Watson's wicket, continued from where he had left the Knight Riders - with single figure scores and wretched form as he dragged Taylor on to his stumps.

His deputy, Micheal Clarke, who had given the IPL a miss so that he could spend quality family time, also failed with the bat, as Sammy had him caught behind the wicket.

At 140-4 after 30 overs with the top 4 back in the pavilion, Micheal Hussey of the Chennai Super Kings, and Brad Haddin, who has replaced the Deccan Chargers' Adam Gilchrist as Australia's #1 wicket keeper, cashed in with a 5th wicket partnership of 91 at over run a ball.

Haddin holed out to long off in the 45th over after a well made 50 off 52, while Hussey soon followed in similar fashion off Gayle for 44.

SRK was later seen pleased with Gayle's bowling and pondered how different the Knight Riders IPL campaign would have been had Gayle not been injured.

The last few overs of Australia's innings saw Preity Zinta with a lot of mixed emotions.

Initially she was joyed to see Sarwan bowl a googly cum flipper that got the wicket of Cameron White, who had had a miserable time with the Bangalore Royal Challengers.

In the same over Preity's joy for Sarwan changed to a mixed bag as Brett Lee smashed his Kings XI team mate for 6.

The joy and mixed joy soon turned into a frown as Kings XI opener James Hopes failed to accelerate at the end and fell to Mumbai Indians' Dwayne Bravo dragging the ball on to his stumps.

Australia's innings ended on 273-8 setting the West Indies an imposing target.

The West Indies' innings began in disastrous fashion with Marshall, Gayle, and Sarwan back in the pavilion within the first 10 overs.

Kings XI pacer Brett Lee bowled a hostile opening spell that rewarded him with the wickets of Marshall, caught behind by Haddin, and his Kings XI team mate Sarwan, caught at 2nd slip by the Super Kings' Micheal Hussey.

Preity Zinta was seen in a confused state yet again.

The other wicket to fall was that of the Knight Riders' Gayle who was trapped in front by Nathan Bracken, whose injury made him miss the Bangalore Royal Challengers failure in the IPL.

The West Indies innings couldn't get going as they folded for 189 in under 40 overs with Bracken picking up 4-31 in 6 overs.

Mumbai Indians' Bravo top scored with 33, while some resistance was shown by Ramdin (31) and Sammy (33) before they were bowled by IPL player of the tournament Watson and Bracken respectively.

Brett Lee's 2-37 saw him get some congratulatory SMSes from Preity Zinta, while Sarwan was sent a comisseration SMS. Hopes was told to do better in the next game, and Marsh received more hugs via SMS as he got the man of the match award.

The Kings XI from Punjab dominated the 1st ODI between Australia and the West Indies, while the Kolkata Knight Riders, Bangalore Royal Challengers, Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals, and Mumbai Indians all had some representation.

Australia leads the 5-match series 1-0, with the next match on Friday at St. George's.