Beyond the Boundary: The business end of the tournament

For me, one of the best features of the IPL is it’s format. This is a tournament that rewards consistency; only the teams with the most consistent record make it to the finals. Most cricket tournaments split teams into groups with a couple of matches in the league stage, then feature knock out stages or in some cases the (rather grandly-named) Super League stage. Almost all these tournaments fail to reward the most consistent teams with more opportunities. In contrast, the format of the IPL ensures that the four most consistent teams get the opportunity to fight for the big prize. With each team playing the other teams at home and away (for a total of 14 matches for each team), only the teams that play well throughout can hope to make it to the finals.

Just 11 matches remain in league play. Incredibly, seven of the eight teams have a chance of making it to the semi finals. Every match causes a change in the table. Last Friday, when the Kings XI Punjab beat the Mumbai Indians, it meant that the top four were still undecided.


Royal Challengers Bangalore won against the Kolkata Knight Riders this past Saturday and gave themselves - along with the Mumbai Indians - a great chance of qualifying for the semi finals.


It’s possible every match now will see a new team enter or exit the top four. Net run rates could well enter the equation. It’s all set up for a final week of the league stage in IPL 3.

Posted by Sajith Sivanandan (When not attempting to get selected for IPL in the year 2020, Sajith works at Google Singapore)