Unpredictable IPL as usual. I bet on CSK primarily due to this reason though they were the underdogs against Punjab who seemed to be way stronger in all departments, but got screwed royally. However, I was surprised to see Raina and Rayudu throw away their wickets.

Advice: Temper your expectations when it comes to the IPL. Learnt this lesson a long time back myself.

Don't lose hope today. There is pattern in Chennai, game is getting slow after 10-12 overs in every game and runs are not coming easy for batters. Warner is already gone, 2 more wicket and Mumbai is fav after that.

Mumbai's Success primarily comes from their stagnant team. Ro, Pollard, Pandya Brothers, Bumrah. They have these players playing for them for ages now. More recently SKY, Kishan, De'cock, and Boult have been part of the team for 3-4 seasons now. This means 7-8 out of their 11 are almost fixed just 3-4 are rotating members. This means they don't have to find their Rhythm with the new combination every year which most of the teams have to do.

Moreover, I think Mumbai's Core Strength is its pace bowling & fielding and that comes with two big names Bumrah & Trent Boult. Most of the crucial and close matches if you remember where Mumbai won were actually won when MI was bowling. Obviously big credits to Rohit that how he manages bowling so well that even after 12 overs you will often find MI in a good situation with 3 overs of Bumrah still in hand. Those 3 extra overs of Bumrah always do the trick. He carries such a huge reputation that even the batsmen know that 2-3 overs of Bumrah are going to be silent and they try to target other bowlers and often lose wickets through this. Moreover, CSK's Jadeja and MI's Pandya Brother(and SKY too) are so good in the field that they have the capability of energizing the whole team with their energy and brilliant fielding.

I can't believe that I'm not fixing any match  I have won all 9 matches!!! Yesterday, I was so sure that I'm losing point for the first time but that doesn’t happen. SRH really need to work with their batsman. They lost the match against RCB in the same way and one match in last year too.

I would be pretty good with Williamson IN & Warner out while having Bairstow, Rashid and Mujeeb both.

In football they have global franchise-level tournaments such as UEFA champions league, Europa Cup and the AFC champions league. The ICC tried with a similar tournament almost a decade ago, but it was a big failure. Back then, the franchises didn't had that much of fanbase. But such a tournament may become a success now, as the circumstances have changed drastically. International cricket is a joke now, with too many lopsided contests. There is a huge gap between the top 4 teams and the remaining 8 test playing nations.

One issue with this suggestion is the revenue distribution. For example, if RCB is touring Sydney Sixers, then the revenues will be shared between RCB and SS, with BCCI and CA losing out. Under such circumstances, the respective national boards won't be too interested in such tours. Also, the availability of national players can be a concern. Without players such as Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, the tours may not collect much revenue. And finally, there may be players who represent both the franchises.

Kolkata is not stable as a team in this season. RCB gave a huge target of 205 runs. KKR's top-order batsmen should have scored 90-100 runs in the first 10 overs. While Gill and Rana's strike rate was good, Tripathi, Morgan, and Sakib's strike rate was not good enough. I was not satisfied with the batting of Sakib and Dinesh Kartik. Besides, Shakib bowled only 2 overs. Maybe he gave up 24 runs in 2 overs but I think he should have bowled 1 more over. He is an experienced bowler.

You know about the nature of the pitch when bowlers like Mohammad Shami and Kagiso Rabada goes for more than 10 runs per over. So far the only bowler who got his act right seems to be Ravichandran Ashwin (28 runs from 4 overs). Everyone else went for more than 8 runs per over. And so far in this edition of the IPL, the foreign pacers have struggled to adjust. And this was true during this match as well.

Man Today's match was more like a joke. It was as if a world-class batting lineup is batting against a whole club bowling lot. Punjab thought that adding two international bowlers in their squad would solve their problems of death overs but I think the problem has aggravated more even after spending something around 22 Crores on Richardson and Meredith. I am getting the point that the pitch was somewhat bad and a lot of dew further made bowling difficult but you obviously have to give your best in any type of conditions to win matches. Even the fielding looked pretty ordinary. Shami who is expected to be the wicket-taker of this team was bowling like he is giving batsmen the batting practice they need. Just look at the bowling statistics of PBXI bowler today:

 
It looks as if Arshdeep is their star bowler and best performer this season because apart from him rest everyone is going for a toss. Secondly why in this world are they not adding Ravi Bishnoi into the side? He was their best bowler last season too. Also why waste the Gayle Storm on number 3? If Rahul cannot send Mayank on number 3, he should himself come on number 3. Gayle coming after 10-12 overs on the pitch is futile and of no use. He cannot play according to the momentum of the game he just creates that momentum himself. I am surprised to see the way think tank of PBXI is behaving.