May 11th, 2009 
Aman This is the question for which no one finds an answer. In the game of cricket which is full of uncertainties, anything may happen. As if now it looks like that only the Delhi Daredevils are in the safe zone. Also there is only just one team to which we can strike off from the list of the contenders of the semifinals. You guessed it right. Only Kolkata Knight Riders are the one which cannot expect any miracle now, other than that any team can make it to the semifinals. We all know that any team which manages to get 14 or more points can make it to the semifinals.
Let’s start from the bottom. The team as of now at the bottom of the expected teams is Royal Challengers from Bangalore. This team has 10 points and they are yet to play 4 of their games. If they manage to win all their four games they will be in as they would have 16 points. This team has learnt a lot from the mistakes they have committed in the past and their performance is improving in every game they play. This team too had issues with Captaincy but they handled it very quietly. Rahul Dravid and Kallis both are performing well and so is Anil Kumble. They lost successive 4 matches after opening well. This is the team which is getting better and better match after match.
Next in the list comes Mumbai Indians. This team has played 10 matches and they have scored 9 points. They are left with 4 games to be played and they have a margin of losing just one game. If they would be lucky enough that the other teams like Deccan Chargers and Chennai losses all of their matches than this team can also afford to lose 2 games. With Jayasurya and Sachin Tendulkar on their side everyone expected something big from this team and this team was under high pressure thus in the spotlight. This is the team that represents the home of cricket in India. All the expectations were soared after their game against the Chennai Super Kings. To make 14 points they will have win at least three of their remaining 4 games. Looking at what Duminy is doing and the way Zaheer Khan is bowling we can expect they may make it to the semis. Well the discontentment of Harbhajan Singh is also cropping up. Hope Sachin will be able to contain it.
We see Kings XI Punjab at the fifth place. They have 10 points out the 10 games that they have played. To secure a place in the semi finals they need to win at least 2 games. It does not mean that they may safely lose 2 games. To ensure that their place is secure they should ensure that they win 3 games and they will have 16 points and their place would be secured. This team has a problem of not having someone to lead them. This is the team which has all young guns. They are in fact princes. It would be wrong to call them Kings. One thing which we can call a quality of this team is that they have an ability to bounce back in the game despite of the bad start they get. Yuvraj Singh is the father figure of this team. I think he is also their greatest disappointment as well. They have Yusuf Abdulla as an asset. Sangakara is the player to be watched in this team. Irfaan Pathan has come up again as the player to be picked. There would not be any wonders when you see this team plays semi final.
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