THE 34th game was won comfortably by the King's XI of Punjab - they beat the Royal Challengers of Bangalore by seven wickets. The Challengers looked tense and the Punjab boys were on a roll - something is drastically wrong with the Challengers. As Vijay Mallya, its owner, has mentioned once again - he had relied on Charu Sharma and Rahul Dravid, they have let him down.

Similar is the sad condition of the Hyderabad outfit - its official captain VVS Laxman is maintaining a low profile and Adam Gilchrist is holding fort. But, here again, the team is unable to deliver. Another captain who is seen on the sidelines is Sachin Tendulkar - Shaun Pollock is deputising on his behalf and has done a fairly good job till now.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is moving into the very important stage of identifying teams that would proceed to the semi-finals. Teams, with big names like VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid, continue to struggle while the Rajasthan team is turning out to be the dark horse. Under the able captaincy of Shane Warne, it is proving to be a handful for all those who try to wrest the initiative from them. The Chennai team spearheaded by Dhoni is another strong contender for a semi final berth like the Kolkata team of Sourav, or should we say Shahrukh Khan. The last few games were superb display of what determination can achieve - the last ball win of the Chennai team, the fire power of Sourav, the routing of the Delhi devils are pointers to the fast maturity of a whole lot of youngsters who would be the future of Indian cricket. The fourth team would be a toss-up between Sehwag of Delhi and Yuvraj of Punjab.

The wonderful response to IPL has increased the headache for the selectors because the number of choices before them would be enormous. The players have appeared on the scene from remote corners of the country and are yelling at the top of their voices - "We have arrived; we do not want to be sidestepped."