Bal inches closer

Day 12 of the IPL was a low-scoring affair with many of the big guns - and common picks - failing. But Ian Chappell is still entrenched firmly on top of the table, leading Sambit Bal by 432 points.

All the big picks - Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Yuvraj Singh, Sanath Jayasuriya, Sachin Tendulkar and Abhishek Nayar - had a relatively quiet day. But in the middle of all the big guns failing, someone who quietly made more than 300 points on Tuesday was David Lloyd. David had reckoned that since he had no changes left, he would finish at the bottom of the heap and his "eggs were in a leaky basket". But boy, did his "gun players" fire for him. Ishant Sharma, his pick for the first game, gave him 160 points, and Yuvraj - his trump for game two, gave him 50 points. How David would have rued his luck - he was the only one to have Irfan Pathan in his team, who gave him 77 points. Had Irfan been his trump, David would have snuck in at No. 2, displacing Sambit. For now, he trails Sambit by 54 points.

Today promises to be a big-scoring affair. Sambit has eight players featuring in today's games. Ian and Sanjay Manjrekar have seven each and David has four. Expect some big changes tomorrow.