Team Delhi – No. 1, 20 pts
Strengths: A solid middle order. Bowling has been effective despite benching McGrath
Weaknesses: The team hasn’t been tested in close games. Sehwag and Gambhir have been patchy, though they fired in the last match
Opportunity: To justify their tag of pre-tournament favourites
Threat: Law of averages might result in middle order failing to fire at crunch time
Team Chennai – No. 2, 17 pts
Strengths: Prolific Hayden and Raina. Wily Murali and Jakati. A canny skipper in Dhoni
Weaknesses: Have often leaked runs at the death and made costly fielding errors
Opportunity: To make up for that narrow loss to Team Jaipur in last year’s final
Threat: Have to guard against top-order wobble as middle has tended to crumble under pressure
Team Hyderabad – No. 4, 14 pts
Strengths: Gilchrist, Symonds have been explosive and Rohit Sharma has sizzled with both bat and ball. R P Singh and Pragyan Ojha can be dangerous
Weaknesses: Tend to implode if big names have an off day
Opportunity: To redeem themselves after their disastrous bottom ranking last year
Threat: Must guard against attack of nerves
Team Bangalore – No. 3, 16 pts
Strengths: Wealth of experience, including Kumble and Kallis. An exciting new find in Manish Pandey
Weaknesses: Have been too inconsistent
Opportunity: To wipe out last year’s humiliation, when they finished 7th
Threat: New-ball bowlers will need to be at their best to combat the awesome batting line-up of Team Chennai.