Semi-final probables

Yuvraj's team winning their last match against Deccan Chargers have now fixed their berth in the semis along with Rajasthan Royals.



So with 6 matches to be played before semis, nothing can move these two teams - Royals and Kings XI Punjab.

Kolkata standing at 11 and one match to play has no chance as any result (win, loss, tie) or no-result from today's match between Mumbai Indians and Delhi DareDevils is going to put at least one of the team at or above 14 where Knight Riders can't reach.

Banglore and Hyderabad fighting for the last two positions, nothing can move these two teams as well. All they can do now is to make this tournament a little more interesting by disrupting the 3rd and 4th positions. If in Tuesday's match Deccan Chargers beat Chennai and the next day Bangalore also manages to achieve the same feat against much stronger Mumbai Indians, the equation of this tournament will be a lot interesting to look at.

In any condition, today's game between DareDevils and Indians is crucial for both of them; because if Chennai wins one of the remaining two battles then this game will decide the 4th position for semis.

Now lets look at the possibilities of these three teams, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. Chennai has two games in hand one against the front-runner Jaipur and the other one against the bottom-runner Hyderabad; so at least one win, which is possible looking at their history in this tournament, will put them at 16. And if they loose both of their matches they will have to hope for Mumbai to loose all of theirs, too. Mumbai is playing against two stronger teams in their remaining 3 matches and it must win at least two to secure its birth in semis. They will be confident against Banglore in their last match and knows that beating Jaipur won't be an easy task. That leaves them all out in the center with today's battle against DareDevils. Now where does the Delhi team stand? It has got only one match and that too against Mumbai Indians. Loosing this game will be the end of road for them. Though it has a better bowling squad and Gambhir-Sehwag pair to its advantage; no one can really be sure against an opponent with in-form demolishing-man Jayasuriya and the likes of Sachin and Uthappa.

Overall Chennai and Mumbai stand better chances than Delhi. Delhi winning its only remaining match doesn't confirm its reservation as it still will have to hope for Mumbai to lose at least one of their two.