There's Only 3 possible winners in this IPL

The game is not over but I am sure the result is safe (although, the 438 game can testify against me). The Royal Challengers Bangalore made 263-5 against the Pune Warriors today in a T20 IPL game, a world record. Chris Gayle made 175 not out off 66 balls for the RCB, of course a world record. It took him 30 balls to reach 100 runs and 53 deliveries to reach 150. Gayle's innings included 17 sixes and 13 fours. Pune are currently 38-3 after 5.2 overs.

An innings like that shows that a great innings by a player can win a match. I believe this is especially true in T20 cricket. My summation from this is that right now there are only three brilliant teams in this season's IPL. Only these three teams have the kind of batsmen who can win games single-handedly while also having good bowlers, fielders and a good team spirit. From the current log you can probably determine which ones they are. 

Pos	Team	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Net RR	For	Against	Pts
1	CSK	7	5	2	0	0	+0.648	1058/136.1	997/140.0	10
2	RCB	7	5	2	0	0	+0.470	1046/133.0	1034/139.5	10
3	SRH	7	5	2	0	0	-0.104	910/138.1	921/137.4	10
4	RR	7	4	3	0	0	+0.588	1061/139.2	958/136.2	8
5	KXIP	6	3	3	0	0	+0.204	828/112.1	829/115.3	6
6	MI	6	3	3	0	0	-0.194	947/120.0	946/117.0	6
7	KKR	6	2	4	0	0	+0.021	860/118.4	843/116.4	4
8	PWI	7	2	5	0	0	-0.706	945/138.4	994/132.1	4
9	DD	7	1	6	0	0	-0.913	967/137.0	1100/138.0	2

The log can be seen at http://www.iplt20.com

The Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad are the best IPL teams right now. They are also the three teams with the best current form in the competition. Who are the batsmen who can win games in these three teams?

From Chennai there's Michael Hussey, MS Dhoni and Murali Vijay. 

From Bangalore there's Chris Gayle, Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli.

From Hyderabad there's Kumar Sangakkara, Cameron White and Thisara Perera.

All these teams have great depth, though the Sunrisers do not have as much. Nevertheless, I believe only one of these three teams will win the IPL. The other six lack the talent, belief, form or execution. The Rajasthan Royals are not bad right now but since they lost to Chennai yesterday by five wickets, after Shane Watson scored 101 for RR, I believe they are not in the same class as the other three teams. 

Chris Gayle of the West Indies today made 175* for RCB, the world record for the highest score by a batsman in a T20 game. It was also the fastest century achieved. If any person could do it he could. Image taken from http://www.supersport.com.

My favourite IPL team - CSK

As on the night of Wednesday 10 April 2013, here is how the 2013 IPL log stands:

Pos	Team	P	W	L	Pts	NRR
1	Mumbai Indians	3	2	1	4	0.850
2	Rajasthan Royals	2	2	0	4	0.600
3	Royal Challengers Bangalore	3	2	1	4	0.352
4	Sunrisers Hyderabad	3	2	1	4	0.083
5	Kings XI Punjab	2	1	1	2	0.986
6	Chennai Super Kings	2	1	1	2	0.296
7	Kolkata Knight Riders	2	1	1	2	-0.231
8	Delhi Daredevils	3	0	3	0	-1.024
9	Pune Warriors	2	0	2	0	-1.915

The log can be seen at http://www.supersport.com or http://www.iplt20.com

Super Kings

I am a keen Chennai Super Kings fan because they are a well balanced team and have Albie Morkel, MS Dhoni, Dirk Nannes, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, Michael Hussey, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Ben Laughlin, Ben Hilfenhaus, Francois du Plessis, Nuwan Kulasekara and Chris Morris. 

All of these players have played international cricket for their countries. Subramaniam Badrinath and Shadab Jakati are also excellent players who back up the rest. Having Chris Morris there captures my favour. He is a great all-rounder for the Lions, the Johannesburg franchise.

Chris Morris (25) after a drop catch. The Super Kings beat the Kings XI Punjab today by 10 wickets after 17.2 overs. Image taken from http://www.iplt20.com

The CSK is an immense power house in cricket which is probably as strong as most countries in cricket. Out of five completed IPL seasons they won two (2010 and 2011). They were runners up in 2008 and 2012. 

Having Morkel, Morris and Bravo means they have three international all-rounders in the full squad. An IPL team is only allowed to play four non-Indian international players in any one game. Thus the extensiveness of the depth of the CSK is, well like the abyss at the bottom of the ocean. They have more international players than a full team. Not just that, but these players are some of the best in the world and the roles they fill compliment each other. The kind of cricket they play warrants my support, or even necessitates my support.

Sunrisers

The Sunrisers Hyderabad are a new team to look out for. They include Kumar Sangakarra, Amit Mishra, Cameron White, Dale Steyn, Thisara Perera, Ishant Sharma, Darren Sammy, Nathan McCullum, Parthiv Patel, Quinton de Kock and Shikhar Dhawan. 

Quinton de Kock (20) is a young South African wicket-keeper opening batsman who just made the record most runs in a South African T20 tournament (This year's Ram Slam). I hope he gets to play in the IPL. But with Kumar Sangakarra and Cameron White in the team I think the selectors will go for the experience rather than risk one of their 4 international places in the squad for an inexperienced young player.

I like that this team is perceived as the underdogs because they are new, and they don't have as many big names as the other teams. The players in this team means I make them my second favourite team.

The Sunrisers Hyderabad after getting Mayank Agrawal out againstthe Royal Challengers Bangalore. Image taken from http://www.iplt20.com