IPL 2018 Report Card: How the teams have fared so far

With the Indian Premier League 2018 season well and truly underway, I am finding it hard to set the teams apart at this stage. It's been an extraordinary tournament so far with so many teams amassing 200+ scores and with a lot of hard-fought encounters taking place.

However, with almost every team having played four matches each, I have noted down a few points about each team and made a few predictions as well.

One thing I can say for sure is that it's going to be an exciting and closely-fought season. I feel that the playoff spots are not going to be confirmed until the last day and six teams will be fighting it out for the top 4 slots.

Here are my predictions:

Clear-cut favourites for top 2:

Chennai Super Kings

The way I see it, I divide a T20 game into four quarters. The first 10 overs being divided into two-quarters of six and four overs each and the last 10 overs being divided into two-quarters of six and four overs each as well.

According to me, CSK are the masters of the last quarter. This can be seen in all their matches. They are able to close out the last quarter every time, with the previous match being an exception. They pace themselves well throughout the innings and perform particularly well in the last quarter. It's like they have a blueprint before the match starts.

The balance that CSK have, especially in their death bowling, is also great. MS Dhoni’s expertise is the distinctive intelligence he brings to an event like this.

He is able to juggle his bowlers the right way and has shown his intelligence time and again.

However, the faith shown in Jadeja over Bravo is questionable, but don't be surprised to see Jadeja’s familiar finishing skills back in full throttle soon.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Sunrisers' strength has been their fielding and bowling. They are superb on the field and their fielders have been like live wires.

In the bowling department, their knuckleballs have made the difference. In T20 cricket, there is a huge demand for those types of deliveries nowadays. The way fast bowlers are able to mix their quick deliveries with a knuckleball or two reminds me of baseball, where they pitch a fast delivery followed by a curved one. Usually, a team relies on their bowlers for executing yorkers perfectly, but in SRH, we see the focus is on knuckleballs.

Their team management believe in having the best bowling unit in the tournament and they have had the same philosophy over the past few years.

All their bowlers have been able to execute them. Even when Sandeep Sharma was brought in for Bhuvi, he executed the knuckle balls perfectly.

Their batting has been commendable as well. I was wondering how Shikhar Dhawan would cope without David Warner but he has performed really well at the top of the order.

The only problem they have is in their middle order, which is not very exciting; they have a few batsmen like Deepak Hooda and Yusuf Pathan who can smash the ball but they need someone who can stick around as well.

Overall, they look like a very polished unit. Out of three departments, two are very good. The overall balance of the team is excellent and they look like one of the favourites as of now.

Fight for third and fourth place:

Mumbai Indians

Despite losing 3 out of the 4 matches, you can never count Mumbai Indians out. They always find a way of reaching the playoffs. They have that tournament temperament, as I like to call it, which could be seen in their first victory against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. The team have seen low points like this in the past and they know how to get over them.

Their death bowling hasn't been up to the mark so far and I expect both Jasprit Bumrah and Mustafizur Rahman to come to the party. I expect more of Bumrah especially and I'm hoping to see him perform better in the upcoming matches.

Their batting has been misfiring at times as well, but you can expect them to come to the party soon. People like Rohit and Pollard are going to win them games, as we saw against RCB.

Another thing which I have noticed is that the team management is missing Harbhajan Singh. From whatever I remember, he was an invaluable asset to them and performed particularly well on the Wankhede pitch. However, Krunal Pandya and Mayank Markande have been doing the job for them and performing exceptionally well as the side's two primary spinners.

All in all, despite being sixth on the table after four matches, I feel MI will squeeze through at the end. They have the tournament temperament to do so.

Rajasthan Royals:

The Royals have been performing well. The way Sanju Samson is batting, he will surely be a contender for the Orange Cap. Out of 14 games, he can win 5-6 games on his own. Ajinkya is finding his bearings as well with good starts at a high strike rate.

RR are a surprise package of sorts. They are a team which have designated roles to their players over the years and when they merge those roles and perform as a unit, they achieve a lot of success.

They seem to have a good death bowler in Laughlin. Unadkat has not been as good as expected, but it is too early to say anything definitively yet. If he can have the same impact as Laughlin, their death bowling will only improve.

Coming to their batting unit, Stokes and Buttler need to pull up their socks as they are two players who can win matches on their own.

Kings XI Punjab

Kings XI possess a strong batting unit and everyone has been in great form. With Chris Gayle coming good the other day, they just look stronger. They do have a lot of backup with players like David Miller on the bench. Also, with Aaron Finch not firing, he could come to party soon and once he does, he could win games on his own.

Their bowlers have done well too. Mujeeb ur Rahman is the x-factor for them and he was the difference between the two sides when KXIP p CSK. Their spin department is very exciting with Ashwin, Mujeeb, and Axar. However, I feel that the problem is in their death bowling. Andrew Tye shouldn't be leaking so many runs in the last overs as he is much better at both restricting and taking wickets.

Ravichandran Ashwin has been tactically sharp as a captain so far; they have been spot on and he has been rotating the bowlers well. I feel that with him being captain, KXIP are going to do extremely well this year.

Kolkata Knight Riders

KKR have been a decent side so far. They haven't seen the best of Dinesh Karthik yet. There have been a few questionable tactics here and there but knowing him, he does a lot of homework, which will stand him in good stead. I feel that this could be the IPL season which could define him as a leader.

A few tactics need to be looked in to from my observations so far. The opening combination of Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine is questionable as the latter in the batting department is getting exposed by quality seam bowlers from the other teams. With ten games left, they need to decide which way they want to go. It's a difficult one for the team management but they have done it in the past and will look to build and shape the team for the future.

Honestly, I would like to see a better role for both the youngsters - Shubhman Gill and Shivam Mavi. They used Mavi well in the previous match but Gill has not been given enough time at the crease yet. He needs to get a better role in the side which could be beneficial to both him as a player individually and to the team.

Nitish Rana and Robin Uthappa are exciting. I expect to see a bit more from Uthappa as he has shown prowess and shown how dangerous he can be at no. 3. He is someone who can four or five games on his own.

As of now, I'm keeping KKR in the hunt for a spot in the playoffs.

To finish at the bottom

Delhi Daredevils

I have major concerns about Delhi's bowling attack. Chris Morris has not been performing as well as expected, which is hampering the team big time. Mohammed Shami was always a question mark; he has not been able to adapt to the T20 format in particular. These type of players do well sometimes but sometimes they don't; the margin of error is small.

The postives from DD is that they have match winners like Jason Roy and Glenn Maxwell, the former who single-handedly won a match on his own. I would like to see Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant perform in the same capacity as well.

Unfortunately, I don't see DD qualifying for the playoffs as of now unless they pull up their socks in the bowling department, especially in their death bowling.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

RCB are facing the same problems they have faced before. They missed a trick in the bowling unit and need somebody on the bench who could be a bowler.

I wouldn't mind seeing Washington Sundar on the top as he has got the skills and showed a glimpse of what we could expect from him in the match against RR. I have seen him play and he is only going to get better with the experience he gains. With him at the top of the order, it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep someone like Moeen Ali or Colin de Grandhomme in the middle order. They could also chip in with their bowling and contribute a few tight overs.

Baz (Brendon Mccullum) has been a problem for them. He is a player who would perform in only 3 out of 10 matches. I feel that Moeen should play instead of Baz and they should allow a youngster to open the batting.

They need to improve on a lot of areas as of now and unless they do so, they will face similar problems to that of last year, which saw them finish at the bottom of the table.