After 6 matches of the Indian Premier League, in which all 8 captains failed to fire, with some failing more than once, today's Kings XI Punjab vs Rajhastan Royals finally saw both the captains play key roles.

Shane Warne picked up 3-19 and Yuvraj Singh knocked a 34 ball 57 thanks to Darren Lehmann and Mohammad Kaif.

Have I mentioned how great it is to watch Shane Warne bowl again. The Champion was at his best today. He led from the front and picked up 3 huge wickets - Hopes, King Sanga, and Yuvraj. He would have had Yuvraj even earlier had Lehmann held on.

Today's IPL match involved many a battle.

• It was a battle between the monarchs: The Kings of Punjab against the Royals from Rajhastan.
  
• It was a battle between the brothers: Irfan Pathan against Yusuf Pathan.
  
• It was a battle between the Aussies: The retired duo of Warne and Lehmann along with Shane Watson taking on Lee and Hopes.
  
• It was a battle between the friends and old team mates: Yuvraj and Kaif.

Besides these individual wars, there was drama aplenty in today's game, which showed that:

• An international line up of Yuvraj, King Sanga, Jayawardene, Lee, Pathan, Sreesanth, Hopes, and Chawla can't win u a 20-20 match against retired cricketers, Indian domestic players, players ditched by India and Australia, and a Kamran Akmal.
  
• The Royals are like a retired Australian team - all field discussions happened between Warne, Lehmann, and Watson. Lehmann and Watson were involved in a crucial partnership. And Warne seemed to take all the wickets.
  
• Sreesanth doesn't need an Aussie to spur him on - He was giving Kaif the stares.
  
• The IPL has turned Kamran Akmal into a wicketkeeper - a catch, a stumping, and a runout - Thats more than he's done for Pakistan all year.
  
• Catching balls hit by your brothers and friends are most difficult to catch - Kaif dropped Yuvraj and Irfan dropped Yusuf.
  
• A 6 in these IPL matches can be hit with broken bats. Maybe Ottayan is right about the insigificance of 6s in this tournament. Shane Watson hitting them is quite insignificant actually.
  
• Who said leg spinners were rare? As many as 3 played in this IPL match. And that too after Pakistan's debutant leggie picked up 3 wickets in his 1st ever over in international cricket against Bangladesh yesterday.

And you still say the IPL doesn't interest you?

I have just heard reports regarding the TV ratings of the IPL coverage in India. The ratings for the first 2 days of the competition are higher than all ratings achieved during the 20-20 world cup, and higher than that of all 20-20 matches played thus far. (This is for India only)

Now thats something.

There's a potential cracker of a match coming up tomorrow - The Deccan Chargers taking on the Delhi Daredevils. Two of the strongest teams of the league. If the Pakistanis in these teams take the same jet Kamran Akmal used, tomorrow's match will have a number of interesting battles on display.

More on that tomorrow. Stay tuned.