The Pune Warriors picked themselves up from the foot of the IPL table with a morale boosting 7-wicket win against the previously unbeaten Rajasthan Royals at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune.

Batting first on winning the toss, the Royals posted an under par 145-5 in their 20 overs on the back of yet another half century from veteran skipper Rahul Dravid. Some excellent bowling from Pune's spin twins Rahul Sharma and Yuvraj Singh helped the hosts pick up 4 wickets for just 43 runs in the middle overs and keep Rajasthan down to a manageable score.

Chris Gayle shares a symbiotic relationship with the M.Chinnaswamy stadium like rhythm and flamenco, sixes and Mexican waves. The T20 bulwark blitzed another special to fire Bangalore to the top of the points table(6 points from 3 games) in front of a vociferous home crowd.His 50 ball 85 was embellished with 9 sixes and 4 fours. In the absence of Zaheer Khan, Vinay Kumar and RP Singh, led the RCB bowling (once again), striking 4 times at the fag end of Knight Riders' innings.

After adhering to circumspection in the initial stages of the chase, Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli revved up the machinery with jaw dropping hits. The awesome twosome beheading Ryan McLaren (who replaced Kolkata's bowling spearhead cum mentor, Brett Lee) walloped 22, moments before the fielding restrictions were lifted. A similar fate was cursed upon Pradeep Sangwan too. They carried on their merry way until the wily Laksmipathy Balaji netted Kohli's scalp, thereby ending the resplendent 63 run association.

The Chennai Super Kings bounced back from their narrow defeat at the hands of the Mumbai Indians by recording a thumping 10-wicket triumph against the Kings XI Punjab in a one-sided contest at the PCA Stadium in Mohali on Wednesday evening.

Skipper MS Dhoni marshaled his resources effectively in the field to limit the Kings XI to just 138 after winning the toss and putting the home side in. Barring David Hussey's innings of 41 (36 balls) and Gurkeerat Singh's 31 (26 balls), Punjab barely put a foot right with the bat, and were bowled out a ball short of 20 overs.

Though Delhi and Mumbai started their season with differing outcomes, they had one thing in common – the desperation for a win. Realizing the importance of points early in the season, the two teams were eager to post a victory. Ricky Ponting looked to set Mumbai on their way by opting to bat first on a belter of a wicket on winning the toss.

Delhi had a dream start though to the game with Irfan Pathan’s wicket maiden getting rid of Ponting. A stunning run out from the Delhi skipper, in the next over, sent Tendulkar back to the pavilion for 1, a wry smile pasted on his face. The crowd at the Wankhede Stadium had flocked in large numbers to watch Sachin and Ponting, yet they reveled in Dinesh Karthik’s party, as he rebuilt the Mumbai innings in style, managing to find the fence consistently. A string of good overs later, the scorecard read a healthy 80-2 at the halfway mark.

An exceptional unbeaten innings of 93 from just 47 balls from the new Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli led the team to an excellent 7 wicket win against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. The result took the Bangalore outfit level on points with the Sunrisers and knocked them from their lofty perch of second place in the IPL standings thanks to a superior net run rate.

Batting first on winning the toss, the Sunrisers posted a respectable 161-6 on the back of a strong late order push from Aussie import Cameron White, who hammered 3 sixes and as many fours on his way to 52 from just 34 balls. White was well supported by Sri Lankan allrounder Thisara Perera, who smashed 4 sixes en route to a 24-ball 40.

In terms of putting limited resources to best use, there cannot be a more tactful team than Rajasthan Royals. Man to man, Kolkata are a powerhouse without an atom of a doubt. Playing their first game of the fresh season at their bastion - The Sawai Mansingh stadium, the less fancied Royals defended 144 against the reigning champs to earn a 19 run victory in front of a vociferous crowd.

Calm. Cool. Collected - the best concoction to cook up a captain. Captain Rahul Dravid reading the greenish pitch with typical astute unleashed 5 pacers on the Knight Riders, who were wiped out for a sorry 125 within their quota of 20 overs. Inserted to bat first the Royals themselves struggled to garner any momentum until 'Golden oldie' Brad Hodge produced a charming cameo when the side needed the most. The upshot was that the Royals were sitting pretty at the top of the points table.

Last season, the now-defunct Deccan Chargers suffered a labyrinth of last-over losses. How times have change. The new Sunrisers, breaking the voodoo, rose in the face of unrelenting tension to sink the Royal Challengers Bangalore in a last-gasp Super Over thriller. It wasn't a perfect display from Hyderabad though, and reeked of a B-grade error-strewn Bollywood potboiler, but did have all the masala ingredients to make it interesting in the very end.

The third Super Over in the history of the lucrative league threw the packed house at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium in a tizzy. Employing his bat like a sledge-hammer, Cameron White bludgeoned 2 monstrous biggies. After a tight last over, Vinay Kumar turned from hero to villain in a space of 5 minutes as Hyderabad pocketed a whopping 20 runs. Finally, the world got the titanic square-up it craved for - the irresistible force that is Dale Steyn vs the immovable object in Chris Gayle. Needing 12 to win off 2 balls, Gayle planted the pace ace into the sight-screen. Steyn rallied to zero in on the block-hole as SRH celebrated their second consecutive victory. Oh boy what a victory it was!

The Pune Warriors were handed an embarrassing 8 wicket defeat at home thanks to a fantastic team effort from the Kings XI Punjab. The Warriors won the toss, but that was probably the last thing that went right for them in the early kick-off on Sunday.

Opting to bat first, Pune posted a paltry 99-9 in their 20 overs with Abhishek Nayar top scoring with 25. The wickets were shared around by the Punjab bowlers with Azhar Mahmood and Praveen Kumar taking two each and each of the other bowlers also contributing in the wickets column. With the exception of Kumar, none of the other bowlers also conceded more than 5 an over, and that excellent bit of economy helped keep the Punjab batting task to a minimum.