From two spin partners who are now IPL adversaries to two long-time openers who’ll be pitted against each other. Neither Matthew Hayden nor Adam Gilchrist have had a tournament to remember so far, but all that can change in four days as IPL 2010 reaches its climax. And while they may not have clicked so far, both are such destructive match-winners that you can write them off only at your own peril.

The most disappointing aspect of the performances of these two is the number of balls they’ve lasted per dismissal: Hayden has averaged 17 deliveries per dismissal, and Gilchrist has lasted 11.5. These are terrible numbers, and I’m hoping both last at least 30 deliveries in the semi-final, unlike the two big guns in the Mumbai-Bangalore semis – Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis both played exactly nine balls.

The other head-to-head I’m looking forward to is the one between two young players who’ve been seen as the future of Indian middle-order batting for a while now. Both Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma haven’t always justified everything that’s been said or written about them, but both have been stars of the IPL. Raina has the better stats – he has scored more runs, at a better average and a slightly better strike rate, but Rohit has had the edge in the middle overs. (Raina’s way ahead in the Powerplays, with 147 runs in 93 balls to Rohit’s 14 in 27.) Both have been key fielders as well for their teams. I can’t wait to see how their personal battle pans out on Thursday. If I have to choose a winner, I’ll go with Raina.

For several years, they formed one of the most potent spin-bowling combinations in world cricket; now, they’ll be adversaries, each trying to push his team into the IPL final. Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh have both been among the best bowlers in the tournament so far. Of the spinners who’ve bowled more than 30 overs, only R Ashwin fo Chennai has a better economy rate than Kumble’s 6.46. Harbhajan’s economy rate is only marginally more, but he has compensated by taking more wickets, and has a far better average.

Breaking up the performances of the two bowlers by stages in the innings, it’s clear that Kumble’s economy rate has been exceptional in the Powerplay overs and then again at the end. Harbhajan hasn’t done badly either, and has a better average and economy rate than Kumble in the middle overs. Twelve of Harbhajan’s 15 wickets have come in the second innings – average 17.67, economy rate 7.18 – simply because Mumbai have batted first in ten out of 14 games. Nine of Kumble’s 12 wickets have come in first innings (Bangalore have chased in ten of 14 games) at an average of 30.33 and an economy rate of 6.85.

In the two matches played between the these teams, Kumble has figures of 3 for 59 from eight overs; Harbhajan has 3 for 63 from eight. Who’ll take the honours when the stakes get the highest?

Irfan Pathan and Chaminda Vaas: both are left-arm swing bowlers whose stock ball is the one that bends back into the right-hander, both rarely operate above 130 kmh, and both are currently out of favour with their national sides. On Sunday, both were entrusted by their captains with the final over of matches that would determine two IPL semi-finalists. If Irfan defended 16, Chennai Super Kings would get knocked out. If Vaas failed to defend 17, Deccan Chargers wouldn’t make the final four. The similarities ended there.

Irfan attempted to bowl a yorker the first ball but MS Dhoni was too good, moving deep into his crease to convert the length and driving to the cover boundary. The next three deliveries, however, were of hittable length and Dhoni launched second for one of the biggest sixes Dharamsala will see. The third disappeared over long-on again. Match over with two balls to spare and Irfan’s poor lengths had helped eliminate Kolkata Knight Riders.

A couple of hours later Vaas was facing a similar challenge. He had been drafted back into Deccan’s XI in place of Ryan Harris. Some will argue that he should have never been dropped. Vaas’ opponent, Paul Collingwood, may have been a less destructive batsman than Dhoni but the stakes were higher. Punjab had only been playing for pride against Chennai; travel-weary Deccan had strung together four wins on the trot to get to where they were – one good over away from the semi-finals.

Vaas’ first ball was a yorker and Ashish Nehra gave strike to Collingwood. Knowing Collingwood favours the deep midwicket boundary, Vaas cut the second ball across the right-hander from over the wicket and beat the batsman’s heave across the line. Delhi now needed a boundary a ball and the Kotla grew quieter. The next was a perfect yorker, one that thudded into Collingwood’s pads. He ran a leg bye, leaving Nehra on strike with 15 to get off three. Deccan were through, and Vaas had done plenty to retain his spot in the semi-final.

They’re among the senior citizens of IPL 2010, but more importantly, Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis are the leading run-scorers of the tournament so far, and the only ones to top the 500-mark. So here’s a more detailed look at how the two batsmen have scored their runs so far:

Tendulkar has a 14-run lead over Kallis, who in turn has a slightly better average, but the most interesting numbers are the run rates and the dot-ball percentages, especially during the Powerplay overs. Overall, Tendulkar has scored one run more per over than Kallis and played about four fewer dot balls, but the difference is far more in the first six overs. Tendulkar has tended to take charge during the early overs, scoring at 8.67 per over, while Kallis has played the anchoring role, which has generally suited Bangalore well, but cost them dearly in the match against Deccan Chargers, when Kallis wasted 37 balls in scoring 27 as Bangalore botched up a run-chase of 152.

Kallis also has a dot-ball percentage of more than 47 in the Powerplay, which is significantly higher than Tendulkar’s 36.65. Another significant difference is the number of twos for each player: Tendulkar has run 34 twos in the tournament so far, while Kallis has managed just 19. Kallis has taken more singles, though – 186, to Tendulkar’s 154.

Kolkata’s heavy defeat against Chennai has considerably set back their chances of a semi-final berth, but all isn’t yet lost for Sourav Ganguly and Co. The disadvantage for Kolkata is their net run rate, which, at -0.632, is the lowest among all the teams. The advantage is that they’ll be playing both of their last two matches at home, where they’ve won three out of five matches. The other advantage is the lack of consistency of the rest of the contestants – none of the other teams in the reckoning have shown the kind of form needed to pull away from the pack. If other results go Kolkata’s way – and if they win their last two matches, obviously – they can make the last four without even the need for net run rates to come into play. Consider the following scenario:

Bangalore, Deccan and Chennai lose their remaining matches, which means each of those teams stays at 12 points. If Rajasthan beat Bangalore and lose to Kolkata, they’ll go up to 14, while Delhi move to second place and 16 points with wins against Chennai and Deccan. In such a scenario, Mumbai and Delhi will take the top two places, with Rajasthan and Kolkata will be on 14, with four teams, including Punjab, tied on 12. (And if Bangalore beat Rajasthan, everything else remains the same with Bangalore replacing Rajasthan on 14 points.) Can someone please tell Shahrukh Khan and Ganguly that it ain’t all over yet?

The Deccan-Bangalore game in Nagpur was a compelling one, and a major reason for that was the conditions, especially the bigger boundaries, which made it much tougher for teams to hit fours and sixes. Nagpur has hosted three matches so far, and stats show that teams have scored the least percentage of runs in boundaries here. In fact, this is the only venue where less than 50% of the total runs have been scored in fours and sixes. Nagpur also has the highest balls per four figure, of 10.77 – it’s the only venue where that number exceeds nine.

What’s a little more surprising, though, is that a couple of other venues have seen, on an average, fewer sixes than Nagpur, which averages a six every four-and-a-half overs. In Mohali, the average is one every seven overs – in five matches at that ground, only 28 sixes have been struck, an average of less than six per match. (The overall average in IPL 2010 so far is about ten per match.) The Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai is the other venue where sixes haven’t been that easy to come by. The lowest number of sixes in a single match, though, was in Delhi, when the hosts played Punjab a couple of days back.

The success of Bangalore’s top order has been one of the key reasons for their good performance this season, but while Jacques Kallis has been amazingly consistent, Manish Pandey, his opening partner in most matches, has struggled every time Bangalore have batted first. Here’s a comparison of the two openers when Bangalore have batted first and when they have chased:

On the four occasions when Bangalore have batted first, Pandey has made 0 (7 balls), 20 (28 balls), 5 (7 balls) and 1 (6 balls). Batting second, Pandey has been the epitome of consistency, with a lowest score of 29 and a highest of 42 in five innings. It speaks highly of his ability to handle the pressures of a chase, but it also suggests he's a little lost when he doesn't have a target in front of him. Kallis, on the other hand, has exactly the same strike rate when batting first and second - you can't get more consistent than that!

Bangalore’s starts have been a major reason why they’ve been so successful chasing – five of their six wins have come batting second. For their opponents, putting Bangalore in to bat is clearly the way to go – of the four times Bangalore have batted first, they’ve won only once.

118 – The number of balls batsmen didn't score off in the game between Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab at the Feroz Shah Kotla. It’s the most in a match during the 2010 IPL, beating the 117 in the game between Bangalore and Chennai at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

2 – The number of sixes hit at the Kotla was the lowest for any IPL match this season. Both those sixes were hit by Punjab, making Delhi’s innings the only the second six-less one this year, after Kolkata’s against Chennai at Eden Gardens.

20 – The number of dot balls bowled by Ramesh Powar, the most in a spell this season. He’s tied with Dirk Nannes who bowled 20 dots against Punjab.

2.91 – Dinesh Karthik’s scoring-rate per over during his 35-ball 17 is the lowest in this season among batsmen who have faced at least 20 balls in an innings.

40 – The number of runs Delhi scored in 11 overs from the 5th to the 15th. It’s the lowest aggregate during this interval this season.

Kings XI Punjab sunk to another low in their most recent game against Rajasthan Royals: their IPL campaign is already going horribly wrong, and they didn’t help matters by making a meal of their last five overs with the bat. After 15 overs, they were reasonably placed at 126 for 4, a run rate of 8.40.

Their last five overs, though, were soporific beyond belief. Irfan Pathan pottered to 24 off 23, while Piyush Chawla struggled mightily, scoring 10 off 15. The result was 27 off the last five, and Punjab ended the innings with a run rate of 7.65. Eighteen singles and four twos were scored during this period, and not a single four or six, which was the first instance of a team playing all of its last five overs without finding the boundary even once in the 2010 IPL. There was one other instance of no fours in the last five overs, also against Rajasthan, but on that occasion Deccan Chargers at least managed three sixes and scored 40 in the last five. There were no such redeeming features for Punjab, whose comprehensive defeat has almost definitely ended their hopes of making the semi-finals.

And it’s hardly a coincidence that Punjab and Deccan, the cellar dwellers, feature twice each in the top five worst performances in the last six overs. The only other team in the top five is Chennai Super Kings, in a display that is easily the worst choke of the tournament so far.

Over the last few days, there’s been plenty of stats going around on teams and players, but not much on the venues, so here’s one that looks at the ten grounds that have been used in IPL 2010 so far. This one deals with the performances of fast bowlers and spinners.

Overall, the averages are almost the same, but spinners have done much better in terms of economy rate, conceding a run less per over than the fast bowlers. And among the venues, the numbers spring a few surprises.

I was quite shocked to see fast bowlers’ average in Bangalore – the Chinnaswamy pitch has had plenty of bounce for the pacers, but they’ve conceded 45 runs per wicket here, at a run rate of almost eight-and-a-half. Dale Steyn, Bangalore’s spearhead, has looked dangerous here, but has only taken two wickets at an average of 60.50. Praveen Kumar (average 25.40) and Vinay Kumar (22.60) have done better, but a few others have spoilt the numbers for fast bowlers – Sreesanth has conceded 42 in 18 balls, Yusuf Abdulla 36 in 17, Morne Morkel 34 in 18 and Irfan Pathan 33 in 18. On the other hand, Anil Kumble’s four wickets here have come at an average of 23.50 and an economy rate of 5.93.

On the other and, Mohali and the Brabourne have been kinder to fast bowlers in terms of wickets, though the economy rate remains higher.