Shane Warne's Royals put up a fabulous show at Ahmedabad to crush the rampaging Deccan Chargers in a morale boosting 8 wicket win for the Rajasthan side. That win, their third on the trot takes the Royals to the third place in the points table in what has been an amazing turn of fortunes. The Chargers were restricted to 148 off their 20 overs thanks to some spirited bowling from the Royals before Michael Lumb and Yusuf Pathan played blinders to take them home in a dominating chase.

Adam Gilchrist won the toss, admist widespread confusion with Warney thinking he had won it, and had opted to bat first. As luck would have it though it was Gilly's side that made first use of the pitch. Both sides were coming on the back of a string of wins, and hence made just the one change each as Deccan brought back the fit again VVS Laxman for Monish Mishra while the Royals dropped Munaf Patel for Sumit Narwal.

The Mumbai Indians scored an emphatic 5-wicket win over the Chennai Super Kings to go on top of the points table with a game in hand over a second placed Bangalore side. Chennai did well to set a target of 181, thanks to a resilient 83 from Suresh Raina but a blitzkrieg half-century from Shikhar Dhawan followed by a masterly 72 from the little master ensured Mumbai chased down the total with ease.

Sachin Tendulkar won the toss and decided to bowl first in what was an unusual decision saying he'd like to take advantage of a ‘sticky' wicket. MS Dhoni was happy to lose the toss, saying that batting first would take the pressure off his side, which had lost the previous two games chasing. While the Mumbai Indians were happy to announce an unchanged side from their win over the Knight Riders, Chennai made four changes in a bid to reverse their flagging fortunes. Apart from Dhoni, they brought in Joginder Sharma and Shadab Jakati while handing Sri Lankan all-rounder Thissara Perera his IPL debut. George Bailey was left out following his scratchy innings against Bangalore with M Vijay, R Ashwin and Sudeep Tyagi the others to lose out.

The Delhi Daredevils finally got out of their poor run of form with a convincing win by 17 runs over a red hot Royal Challengers Bangalore team at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in the early kick-off on Thursday. While the Daredevils had started this year's IPL strongly with two wins, their recent run of three consecutive losses was turning out to be a rather prolonged and unwelcome blip. The home side on the other hand, started with a loss in their first match but came back very strongly by winning their last 4 fixtures. Delhi batted first and were off to a flier courtesy David Warner's power hitting. AB de Villiers and debutant Kedar Jadhav then added the finishing touch as Delhi finished at a challenging score of 183 for the loss of 4 wickets in their allotted 20 overs. In reply the Royal Challengers Bangalore faltered in their chase and ended up 17 runs short.

It was a day when everything clicked for the Delhi side - batting, bowling and fielding - as they got the better of Anil Kumble's men in their own backyard. The home side too aided the visitors cause with a shoddy display when chasing the target. Irresponsible shots and some lacklustre running between the wickets were the key ingredients that made the outcome of the match all but a formality.

The Rajasthan Royals got the better of the Kings XI Punjab by 31 runs in a crucial encounter at Mohali between two teams stuck at the wrong end of the Indian Premier League table. Both teams have been far from their best in the tournament and needed to get a move on soon. With their first win of the season coming in the last match for both sides, the two teams headed into this match with some much needed confidence were hoping to build on their performance.

The Royals were put into bat first and they responded to the challenge by posting 183 for 5 wickets in their allotted 20 overs. Michael Lumb, Fazal Faiz and Adam Voges were the major contributors for the visitors as they planned their innings well and racked up a very competitive total. Punjab, on the other hand were off to a flier courtesy Kumar Sangakkara and Manvinder Bisla's attacking instincts. However, some inexplicable shots by the other premier batsmen in the Punjab line up literally gifted the win to Rajasthan.

A whirlwind 68 (38 balls) from Robin Uthappa, which consisted of 6 huge sixes, propelled the Royal Challengers Bangalore to a more than competetive 171 before a clinical bowling performance helped restrict the Super Kings to 135, a 36 run loss for the Chennai outfit. Uthappa's ferocious innings set the game up for Bangalore and Vinay Kumar's splendid bowling effort backed it up, as Anil Kumble's side notched up its fourth consecutive win in the tournament to take solitary control of pole position in the Indian Premier League.

Having won the toss; stand-in skipper Suresh Raina elected to bowl despite faltering in their chase of 136 against the Kings XI Punjab in the last game Chennai played; probably keeping in mind the fact that the Royal Challengers have won their last three games at the Chinnaswamy batting second. Chennai made two changes to their side - one forced and the other strategic. George Bailey was drafted in place of the injured Justin Kemp while Manpreet Gony's lacklustre performance against Punjab meant that young Sudeep Tyagi got a look in. Anil Kumble, as expected did not touch his winning combination.

The Mumbai Indians set right their campaign winning at a canter against the Kolkata Knight Riders, after suffering a loss to Bangalore in the previous game, also at home. Kolkata meanwhile appear to be heading in the wrong direction as they crashed to their 5th defeat at the hands of Mumbai, and their 3rd straight loss this season. Mumbai outshone the Knight Riders pretty much in every department, with some excellent bowling that restricted Kolkata to 155 despite 75 solid runs from Chris Gayle, before the Little Master shepherded his flock home from start to finish.

Gayle, after sitting out the previous game as the Indian climate got to him, was picked over Brad Hodge, and a further couple of changes were made as Indian under-19 players Mandeep and Harpreet Singh came in for Manoj Tiwary and Ashok Dinda. Mumbai dumped the out-of-form Sanath Jayasuriya for Ryan McLaren and the injured Ambati Rayudu for his once under-19 teammate Shikhar Dhawan. Sourav Ganguly won the toss against his long time opening batting partner and opted to make first use of the pitch at the Brabourne Stadium.

The Kings XI Punjab finally got that elusive win via a heart-stopping humdinger, as they managed to steal a win from the Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk. Chennai were cruising in a chase of a mere 137, but some brilliant bowling pegged them back to finish the 40 overs with the first tie of the season, before they were trounced in the Super Over.

Punjab were looking for their first win of the season as well as their first win ever against the Kings from down south. The changes in team composition were revealed at the toss, and stand-in skipper Suresh Raina had picked Manpreet Gony over Joginder Sharma for the third seamer's slot. For Punjab, the erratic S Sreesanth, who had been picked off for a stupendous 93 runs in 7 overs in the last two games, simply had to be benched, and that gave a chance to Juan ‘Rusty' Theron, a South African right-arm medium-pacer and a complete stranger to anyone in India, to represent the Kings, after barely stepping into the country a few hours prior to kick-off. Punjab further bolstered the bowling by picking Mumbai off-spinner Ramesh Powar over Adrian Barath, who had an unremarkable IPL debut last time, scoring 7 in the middle order. Suresh Raina won the toss and opted to field first on a wicket where he said he would be happy to chase 170-180 odd.

A nervy Delhi side choked after having started well in their chase of 172 and finally fell short by 10 runs despite a valiant half-century by Dave Warner and a rearguard 46 by stand-in skipper Dinesh Karthik. The Deccan Chargers had earlier posted a competitive 171 on the board thanks to a late surge by Rohit Sharma who scored a quick-fire 45.

Adam Gilchrist opted to make first use of a slowish Cuttack track after winning the toss. Both sides made three changes apiece with Delhi dropping the out of form Tillakaratne Dilshan, and local lads Pradeep Sangwan and Rajat Bhatia, for Moises Henriques. Leggie Sarabjit Ladda and Yogesh Nagar. For the Deccan Chargers, Monish Mishra replaced the injured VVS Laxman, who was struck on his wrist during the last game, while another leg-spinner Rahul Sharma got the nod ahead of Jaskaran Singh. Venugopal Rao also got his first look-in of the season as he replaced Anirudh Singh.