The Kolkata Knight Riders finally got off the mark in the 5th season of the Indian Premier League picking up a massive 42 run win against a far from impressive Royal Challengers Bangalore side in Bengaluru on Tuesday. After being invited to bat first on losing the toss, Kolkata posted a competitive 165/8 on the back of two excellent partnerships worth 60 and 65 for the opening couple of wickets. Gautam Gambhir top scored with 64, while Manvinder Bisla chipped in with a handy 46. Kolkata should have scored a lot more than they did given the platform they had, but lost 7 wickets for 29 runs in 6.3 overs at the end of their innings. That wicket taking momentum continued into the second innings as Bangalore crumbled to 33/5 and scrapped together just 123 in their essay. Laxmipathy Balaji was the pick of the Kolkata bowlers, ending with magical figures of 4-18.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore welcomed the Kolkata Knight Riders in the clash of the under-achieving titans at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru in the 4pm kick-off. A large crowd was there to greet the players with the Bangalore fans clearly indicating that oh so well known fact that in India cricket takes a priority over work!

A fabulous unbeaten 73 off 50 balls saw the Mumbai Indians sneak home in a thriller against the Deccan Chargers on Monday night. In what was a last ball finish, Rohit Sharma held his nerve brilliantly to win the game for his side with a fairy tale six off Daniel Christian. Deccan Chargers opting to bat first, posted a competitive 138/9 in their 20 overs on the back of a good innings from Shikhar Dhawan 41 (24) and some good support show from Christian (39). Mumbai were rocked early by a brilliant bowling effort from speedster Dale Steyn (3/12) only to be saved by a fantastic innings from Rohit Sharma, who kept his cool under a lot of pressure to see his side home.

The Mumbai Indians traveled to Vizag on Monday night to face hosts Deccan Chargers in their third game of IPL season 5, looking to get back on track after losing to the Pune Warriors in their previous game. The Deccan Chargers welcomed back skipper Kumar Sangakkara in their ranks and he started off on an auspicious note by winning the toss and opting to bat first. Daniel Harris gave way for the skipper while Manpreet Gony who was carted for 56 runs the other night was dropped for medium pacer Anand Rajan and TP Sudhindra made way for India leg spinner Amit Mishra. With Sachin Tendulkar still nursing his finger injury, the Mumbai Indians experimented once again with the opening slot by giving a game to Hyderabadi Tirmualsetti Suman in place of Surya Kumar Yadav.

The Pune Warriors, who stunned the Champion of Champions, Mumbai on Friday, produced another clinical performance to tame the Kings XI Punjab by 22 runs in front of a boisterous home crowd at the brand new Subrata Roy stadium. Unafraid to bat first on an untested pitch, Pune posted a competitive 166-6 in their allotted 20 overs. Whilst it was the 81 run impact stand between Man of the match, Marlon Samuels (46) and Robin Uthappa (40) that laid the platform for the eventually winning total, Steve Smith's entertaining 12 ball 25 stole the thunder at the end of the innings. In response, Punjab lost their openers cheaply and good old score-board pressure from the useful Pune bowling attack allowed Ganguly & Co. to call all the shots. Punjab limped to 144-8 to hand Pune a comfortable 22 run triumph. For the hosts, Rahul Sharma was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 2-34.

The eighth match of the IPL was tipped to be a battle of brains between two veteran captains as Sourav Ganguly's Pune Warriors took to the field against Adam Gilchrist's Kings XI Punjab at the newly constructed Subrata Roy Sahara stadium infront of a packed house. Reinvigorated by their upset win over Mumbai, Pune were up and ready to extend their supremacy over Punjab, still nursing the wounds from their royal drubbing at hands of Rajasthan.·A·tumultuous cheer greeted·Ganguly, who won the toss and elected to bat first on a fine batting deck.·While Punjab made an enforced change bringing in the experienced Dimitri Mascarenhas for the injured Shaun Marsh, Pune strengthened their line up further with the inclusion of international stars, Ashish Nehra and opener Jessie Ryder. This meant that Wayne Parnell and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar had to cool their heels on the bench.

A fine bowling effort led from the start by Amit Singh and Ankeet Chavan and finished off well by the charismatic Kevon Cooper complemented some industrious batting from Brad Hodge and Ashok Menaria to give Rajasthan Royals their second win of the season at home against the Kolkata Knight Riders today. The Knight Riders were listless in their response, chasing a gettable 165, they folded up for just 142 in their stipulated 20 overs.

Gautam Gambhir won the toss earlier in the day and decided to field first as Kolkata took on the Royals at Jaipur in their second match of this season. The Knight Riders come into this game on the back of a loss against Delhi in a rain-curtailed encounter while Rajasthan won their first game, thanks to a brilliant 98 by opener Ajinkya Rahane.

After a humiliating loss in their own den, the Chennai Super Kings roared back ferociously to rout the Deccan Chargers by 74 runs. The star of the show was the ' Million dollar Rockstar' Ravindra Jadeja, who followed up his quick fire 48 (29) with incredible bowling figures of 5-18. Chasing 194, Deccan offered the resistance of a wet noodle and were never really in the game as they lost wickets in clusters and eventually folded up for a poor 119. The CSK spinners hunted in pairs and strangled the Chargers into submission. Earlier in the evening Chennai notched up a massive 193-6 thanks to the duo of Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo. Though Faf du Plessis(39) set the tone for the target it was Bravo, who provided the icing on the cake with a power-packed unbeaten 18-ball 43, which was embellished with 5 sixes.

The Deccan Chargers, champions of the second edition of the IPL hosted the current title holders, the Chennai Super Kings at Dr. Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA stadium in Vishakapatnam. While Chennai persisted with the same team that collapsed against Mumbai in the curtain raiser of the tournament, Deccan Chargers seemed a trimmed outfit, affected by the temporary absenteeism of their regular captain Kumar Sangakkara and the loss of key players like Kevin Petersen and Pragyan Ojha.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore, hoping to go one better than their run to the finals last season, got their IPL 5 campaign off to an excellent start with a comfortable 20 run win against the Delhi Daredevils on Saturday afternoon. The early kick-off in front of a far from packed Chinnaswamy Stadium witnessed 15 wickets fall and nearly 300 runs scored in an exciting contest between bat and ball. An unbeaten 64 from South African superstar AB de Villiers complemented by an aggressive knock from Andrew McDonald at the top of the order got Royal Challengers Bangalore to 157/8. That total proved to be 20 runs too many for Delhi, who never really recovered after losing Virender Sehwag for a first ball duck. Naman Ojha (33) and Irfan Pathan (24) played useful cameos, but Muttiah Muralitharan spun a tight web around the Daredevils to finish with excellent figures of 3-25 on his RCB debut.

Virender Sehwag had earlier won the toss and elected to field first as Delhi looked to build on the momentum of their opening victory against Kolkata. In the absence of Chris Gayle, news which came as a major shock to all the fans, Andrew McDonald was drafted in by Bangalore on a pitch which Sehwag reckoned would remain favorable for batting throughout. The Delhi Daredevils made one change to their line-up with Doug Bracewell coming in for Roelof van der Merwe, while Bangalore picked a strong side which was filled with a very talented Indian contingent in addition to international stars Muttiah Muralitharan, Daniel Vettori and AB de Villiers.

A brilliant 98 from Ajinkya Rahane, studded with 16 fours and 1 six, propelled the Rajasthan Royals to 191/4 on a seemingly good batting track at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur in their season opener today against the Kings XI Punjab. A fine bowling performance from Kevin Cooper, who returned with figures of 4/24, aided by some sloppy batting gave Rajasthan a winning start to their campaign this season.

Adam Gilchrist, the captain cum coach of the Kings XI Punjab, had called correctly earlier at the toss and decided to put the home side in. Rajasthan Royals, entering a new era under the leadership of Rahul Dravid, opened their campaign against a rejuvenated Kings XI Punjab in the fourth game of this season.

The underdog Pune Warriors, expertly led by Sourav Ganguly, upstaged their high profile neighbors the Mumbai Indians by 29 runs on the back of a virtually flawless bowling performance. Batting first on a tricky wicket, Pune posted 129-9 in their allocated 20 overs. Lasith Malinga and Munaf Patel grabbed two wickets apiece to keep Pune down to a below par total, with Robin Uthappa (36) and Steve Smith (39) keeping the visitors in the game with some battling 30s. Ashok Dinda(4-17) then wreaked havoc on the Mumbai top order, reducing them to 5-3. Though Dinesh Karthik (32) and James Franklin (32) offered spirited resistance, the spinners, Murali Kartik (2-14) and Rahul Sharma(1-16) ran the show in splendid fashion in the middle overs to knock the wind out of Mumbai's sails as the hosts barely made their way to a hundred.

The star-studded Mumbai Indians, who thrashed Chennai in the IPL Season opener, crossed swords with a new look Pune Warriors unit clad in turquoise blue at the Wankhede stadium in what was billed to be ' The Maharashtrian Derby'. The Warriors skippered by former India captain Sourav Ganguly were all charged up to shrug off the off-field controversies and usher in a new dawn for IPL's youngest franchise. Mumbai induced two changes from their successful outing in Chennai with Suryakumar Yadav coming in for Sachin Tendulkar, who injured his finger when trying to fend off a lifter from Doug Bollinger, while Munaf Patel replaced Abu Nechim.