Two groups, 10 teams, 74 matches: IPL 4 ready to take off

NEW DELHI: A bigger, yet trimmer Indian Premier League (IPL) will be unleashed on the fans from Friday. The number of matches has been increased from 60 to 74. However, the BCCI stopped well short of taking it up to 94, the number envisaged by the Board earlier, because of a hectic international calendar and fears about injury to players.

With two new teams joining the League this year, the 10 teams are divided into two groups of five each by draw of lots. There will be 70 league matches plus four play-off games in a complicated system with each team playing the same number of matches (14 matches for each team).

The two groups, Group A and Group B, have five teams each. Group A consists of Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians and Pune Warriors India. Group B has Kolkata Knight Riders, Kochi Tuskers Kerala, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings.

In the group stage, each team will have 14 games to them where one team will face the other four teams in the same group twice on one home and one away game basis, and the other four teams from the other group once, and the remaining team two times. To determine the teams that will play the teams from other group once or twice, there was a random draw.

To simplify, each of the teams from one group plays the teams in the same row and same column twice and all others once. For instance, Deccan Chargers will play Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians, Pune Warriors India (all from same row) and Kolkata Knight Riders two times (one home and one away basis) and Kochi Tuskers Kerala, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings one time each.

Group A	Group B
Deccan Chargers	Kolkata Knight Riders
Delhi Daredevils	Kochi Tuskers Kerala
Kings XI Punjab	Royal Challengers Bangalore
Mumbai Indians	Rajasthan Royals
Pune Warriors India	Chennai Super Kings

This way, Deccan chargers play four teams from Group A and one team from Group B twice (10 matches) and four teams from Group B once (4 matches).

The new format will force BCCI to lose around Rs 1,500 crore from central sponsorship rights in the next seven years