Despite a very good personal effort by Captain Rahul Dravid of Banglore Royal Chalengers , in the 25th match of the Indian Premier League , Punjab Kings XI were too good for them . Dravid scored 66 off 51 ( he seems to be finding his form and will soon be a centurian ) and young VIrat Kohli 34 off 36 to finish at 126 for 10 . No other player could individually score more than 8 . Yuvraj's Punjab Kings XI finished at 127 for 4 with S Marsh on 39 off 34 and R Sarwan at 31 off 29 . The captain does not seem to be in form as yet .

RECORDS are being set in this wanderfully organised Indian Premier League .

Sohail Tanvir the first bowler to take a six wicket haul in the IPL ( in fact in the history of Twenty20 ) Rajasthan Royals , the only team with no coach and the only team with a non-Indian captain and consedered the under-dogs have now had five straight wins to get to the top of the table . WELL DONE RAJASTHAN ROYALS .

Shoiab Akhter has been given a window to play in the IPL by the Pakistan Cricket Board , They have conviniently lifted the ban on him until the next hearing which is to be held on the 4th June . This now lets IPL let him in and Akter will now play for Kolkata Knight Riders ( subject to fitness ) They will have a combination of Akter and Ishant Sharma - maybe their skills will turn Kolkata's fortune . How will Shoiab play under Saurav Ganguly ?

Mumbai Indians easily beat Delhi Dare Devils in the 23rd Indian Premier League match . For Delhi , Shewag was the only one who gave a respectable performace with 40 off 20 but 133 for 10 was never going to be enough and this was  easily accomplished by Mumbai Indians with Jayasurya and captain Shaub Pollock scoring at 2 a ball to take the Mumbai Indians to a win .

In the second match today , the 24th in the Indian Premier League , Warne's Rajasthan Royals beat Chennai Super Kngs comfortably . Chennai Super Kings could only manage 109 for 10 with A Morket scoring the highest at 42 off 33 while Rajasthan Royals easily scored 110 for 2 in 14.2 overs .

Graham Smith ( 35 off 44 )and Asnodkar ( 32 off 30 ) took them onto a win ; Asnodkar is a very impressive player .

Deccan Chargers captain Laxman scored 52 off 44 in the Indian Premier Leagues 21st match and Rohit Sharma scored 57 off 42 to finish at 153 for 6 . This was never going to be enough but they were playing the Banglore Royals who are not playing great at the present . Nevertheless Dravid's team beat Deccan Chargers by 3 runs . W Jaffer scored 44 off 37 , young Virat Kohli hit 38 off 28 and the captain 26 off 19 to finish at 156 for 8 . A good fight by Banglore Royals .

In the Indian Premier Leagues 22nd match between Kings Punjab XI and Kolkata Knight Riders , the Knight Riders lost despite D Hussey and Prashant Saha trying their best  . Hussey at 71 off 46 and Saha at 59 off 32, both with 4 sixes each .Captain Ganguly once again failed to make a mark .Kings Punjab finished at 178 for 6 and Kolkata 169 for 6 .

It seems that icon players and captains Dravid , Ganguly and Captain Yuvraj have still got to fire up . These are world class players and it is only a matter of time before they will entertain the crowds as well as the Australians did . I wait for that day .

The 20th Indian Premier League match at Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai ended the winning streak of Dhoni's Chennai Challengers . Captain Shewag of Delhi Dare Devils showed how destructive he can be with a bat when he is in form and that too when supported by another  in-form batsman in the form od Gautamm Gambhir . Shewag hit 71 off 41 with 4 sixes and Gambhir 50 off 37 with 1 six to take Delhi Dare Devils to 172 for 2 against Chennai Challengers 169 for 6 /. Shivaramkrishnan hit 54 off 37 and Captain Dhoni scored 32 off 27 . Had Mathew Hayden been there , things could have been different . I guess Dhoni will have to think of new ways of playing his team if they want to carry on winning .

Yesterday's action between Ganguly and Warne was resolved by both of them being fined by the Indian Premier League - 10% of their match fees . Fair enough I guess .

Indian Premier League's 18th match was supposed to be a good match with S Ganguly leading the Kolkata Knight Riders and S Warne the Rajasthan Royals - but the main point of discussion has been something else rather than the scores or  the skills of the players . Saurav Ganguly arrived to open the match almost seven minutes late whilst the Rajasthan Royals were kept waiting on the field ( nothing new , you may say ). Most guys would have let it go but not Shane Warne . Warne is a professional and cannot tolerate indiscipline - and rightly so . No one will know if Kolkata's captain did this intentionally - but this is not the done thing and Warne was right in blasting Ganguly's behaviour and lateness .

But I do not think Warne is right when he complains that Ganguly should have walked when G Smith claimed a catch . The umpires had not given him out and before they could Ganguly challenged Smith's claim and asked it to be referred to the third umpire - rightly so ,  as it turned out , the catch was not taken cleanly and Ganguly was declared not out . Smith is not be blamed as things happen so fast and it can be difficult to judge a close catch at times - that is why the umpires are there .Warne should not be upset about this - but he has every right to be upset about Ganguly keeping the fielding tean waiting and would be right in lodging  an official compaint . Indiscipline should NOT BE TOLERATED . Rajasthan Royals royally beat Kolkata Knight Riders by posting 196 fo 5 and beating the Knight Riders by 45 runs . Only Ganguly ( 51 off 39 ) and Davis Hussey ( 42 off 30 ) did any damage and that was not enough - in the process David Hussey became the man with the highest number of sixes in the Twenty20 format -  is it 50 so far or more ? Kolkata Knight Riders will miss the foreign players who have departed to-day - in fact we will all miss them .They are the only ones so far who have been entertaining and  the run getters .

So are we going to see the Kolkata captain in the docks ?

For the Rajasthan Royals Asnodkar scored 60 off 34 , Y Pathan 55 0ff 33 ( next time a centuary ) and R Jadeja 33 off 19 . Some of these newer names are proving to be good finds .

The 19th Indian Premier League match between Punjab Kings xi and Deccan Chargers was not that exciting .  Hyderbad captain V V S Laxman hit 48 off 34 and finished at 164 for 8 whilst the Mohali team finished at 167 for 3 with S Marsh scoring the highest score of 84 off 62 supported by Jayawardene at 45 for 23 finishing at 164 for 8 . Punjab King's XI winning the match with seven balls to spare .

We are all waiting for captain Yuvraj Singh to fire up - where is the guy who hit six sixes in an over and thus joined the club which has the likes of Sir Gary Sobers as its founding member .

Gautam Gambhir of the Delhi Dare Devils denied Banglore Royal Challengers a win by posting a brilliant 86 off 54 in the 17th Indian Premier League match at Feroz Shah Kotta in Delhi .

Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to field when Shewag the Delhi Dare Devil's captain posted a fast 24 off 12 and the baton was taken over by Gambhir and S Dhawan who scored 50 off 33 to finish at 191 for 5  . Banglore ran short of 10 runs and posted 182 for 5 with captain Rahul Dravid scoring 38 for 30 and J Kallis 32 off 17 . Bad luck , Banglore Royal Challengers - maybe they should think about bringing Boucher up the batting order .

On another note poor Shoeib Akhtar had his ban for five years from playing in or for Pakistan upheld - what exactly did he do ? someone said that he was banned for criticising the PCB . So why is Indian Premier League not allowing him to play ? A loss for Kolkata Knight Riders and all the fans of Akhtar

It is said that once you remove the bad apple from the barrel , other apples will ripen just right . The removal of Harbhajan has certainly proved this . Mumbai Indians  have registered their first win in the Indian Premier League against none other than Saourav Ganguly's Kolkata Knight Riders and a convincing win at that . Kokata Knight Riders posted a measly total of 137 for 8 with Laxmi Shukla posting 40 off 21 and  D Das  29 off 20 . This was never going to be enough despite the bad cycle the Mumbai Indians were going through ( although this time they  had got rid of bad baggage in the form of Bhaji ) and Mumbai Indians did it with style posting 138 off 3 with D Bravo at 64 off 53 and Robin Uthappa at 37 off 37 . This will make Sachin Tendulkar  and Mukesh Ambani see the folly of having Harbhajan on their side - sell /transfer this guy ( if any one else will have him ) at the first opportunity .

this was Indian Premier Leagues 16th match played at Eden Garden in Kolkata .

I don't think Sreesanth had any thing to do with the behaviour of Harbhajan . Harbhajan had shown before that he was always looking for trouble and he showed what he is capable of . If BCCI do not punish him adequately , he will be on the field again and this time when he tries to hit someone , i hope he gets clobbered - Please pick Andrew Seymonds or Mathew Hayden this time , Hrabhajan . But then cowards and bullies always pick people smaller than them .

Having said that Sreesanth better watch out . It has come out that he had been sledging through out the match and the umpires had warned him and also expressed their concern to capatin Yuvraj . By all indications , Sreesanth is going overboard and he better watch it or someone else will knock him another one . If he is to play in matches now , the captain should sit him down and tell him to cool down .

" SLEDGING IS AN ART " and the Australians have perfected it . Sledging is supposed to annoy the opposition with the aim that they make mistakes- this is done consciously and not taken seriously by the sledger . Once the opportunity is gone or the match is over , no second thought is given to this ugly side of the game . It is as if it does not exist in your mind any more and you have no memory of it any more - in this way it does not effect the sledger in any way - IT IS NEVER PERSONAL  . What Sreesanth and Harbhajan are doing is that they are letting this sledging work them up and they have made this into personal issues - they are taking this attitude to bed with them and this will only harm them and the game in the long run . If you want to do sledging ( although I do not see the need for it ) , learn the art and be detached - DON'T MAKE THIS INTO PERSONAL CONFLICTS  . Better still just do your job properly for which you are paid - how about that !

Chennai Super Kings beat Banglore Royals in the 15th Indian Premier League match at M  Chinnaswamy Stadium , Banglore . Chennai Super Kings did not post a large total and it looked like this was Dravid's good chance to register a win . Captain M S Dhoni did well by blasting 65 off 30 balls with 3 sixes and Micahel Hussey scored 47 off 38 with 2 sixes to finish at 178 for 5 .

Banglore Royal Challengers had a good start with Wassim Jaffer scoring 50 off 33 with two sixes and Ross Taylor scored 53 off 34 with 3 sixes . That was it , no one else could do much with captain Dravid going LBW for duck . They finished at 165 for 10 . Still Banglore Royals are above Mumbai Indians .

Talking of the Mumbai Indians , the infamous indian ,  one Mr Harbhajan once again got off . After slapping Sreesanth on the field , Farooq Engineer found him guilty but did not see fit to ban him for life - instead banned him for 11 matches of the Indian Premier League . This means that we will be lucky enough not to see this horrible man for the rest of the Indian Premier League matches ( but after a month we will again have to see him on the field ) . Does Farooq Engineer realise what he has done ? He has told the other cricketers that you can NOW physically attack your fellow players , that too on the field and get away with it by being banned from a few matches . No one expected Indian Premier League to come up with such a precedent . So Andrew Seymonds , if you are reading this , next time Harbhajan rubs you the wrong way , you can deck him one ( but please make sure that you knock off a few of his teeth - that is the only way he will learn ) and all you will get is a ban from a few matches . WELL DONE INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE AND WELL DONE FAROOQ ENGINEER FOR GIVING OTHER PLAYERS THE LICENCE TO PHYSICALLY MOLEST OTHER PLAYERS ON THE FIELD . SHAME SHAME SHAME .

I am sure Lalit Modi did not expect this to be the legacy of the Indian Premier League . ( unless of course BCCI wakes up and doles out the right punishment - which should be a life ban - Physical violence has to have a ZERO tolerance policy )   ZERO TOLERANCE ON PHYSICAL VIOLENCE ON CRICKET FIELD .

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE'S  13th match proved unlucky for Shewag and the Delhi Dare Devils . Yuvraj's Punjab Kings XI registered their second win of the tournament and had the owners  Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia jumping for joy . Once again it was a foreign player ( Simon Katich ) who scored 76 to take the Punjab XI to a win . Captain Yuvraj seems to be getting into form with 40 not out . My bet is that it will be Yuvraj who will be the first Indian to score a centuary . Punjab King's XI replied with 162 for six against Delhi Dare Devils low score of 158 for 8 .

The fourteenth Indian Premier League match between Mumbai Indians ( captained by Shaun Pollock ) and Deccan Chargers was totally one sided . Mumbai Indians ( this time without Harbhajan Singh- good riddance ) could only post 154 for 7 . Jayasurya , once again could not perform - it is only a matter of time , but he better come out with the goods if the most expensive franchise of the Indian Premier League is to be saved the humiliation of remaining the only team not to have won a match - and what was worse was that the owner Mr Mukesh Ambani was a spectator today . Deccan Chargers beat them by 10 wickets with Adam Gichrest showing why he is still one of the best cricketers around - he scored the forth centuary of the tournament with 109 off 48 with ten sixes . He was a delight to watch .

The Indian Premier League is really showing up the Indian players for what they are - NOT world class and the Australians are showing why they are the number one . There is not one Indian player who has so far left his mark on the tournament although the new guy Abishek Nehra is impressive .

On Monday , I hope Farooq Engineer will do the right thing and consign Harbhajan to the shelves so that we donot have to endure him any longer . I hope Sreesanth does not stand up and lighten the matter by forgiving the culprit and his team , Punjab King's XI should go with all guns blazing against Harbhajan and ask for the maximum penalty . Come on Preity , show us what you are made off .