Mid-table mayhem

Sixteen matches, five teams, two vacant spots in the qualifiers. That's what it's come to in IPL 2012. While Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders have their places in the playoffs all but confirmed, Deccan Chargers and Pune Warriors stand no chance of progressing. Between these two extremes is a pack of five teams, separated by two points, all eager finish in the top four. Here's a look at what they can or must do:

Mumbai Indians, 14 points from 12 games Mumbai Indians have batting worries going into the business end of the tournament. They are yet to find a productive opening partnership, and in their previous three games they had two batting failures - against Warriors and Royal Challengers Bangalore - and dramatic middle-order collapse that would have cost them the game against Chennai Super Kings but for Dwayne Smith's last over heroics. Can they get their batting in order soon enough to push into the final four?

Chennai Super Kings, 13 points from 13 games Super Kings came into their final four games needing to win every match and struggling to finish games strongly. Against Rajasthan Royals on Thursday, they checked both boxes courtesy a late blitz from Albie Morkel and Anirudha Srikkanth. They have the benefit of experience - they've successfully scripted comebacks from such a position before - but face one particularly daunting hurdle: Virender Sehwag's rampaging Delhi Daredevils on Saturday.

Royal Challengers Bangalore, 13 points from 12 games Royal Challengers seemed to have gathered a bit of momentum, chasing down targets in their previous two matches with more than an over to spare. But dig deeper and you'll see a weakness: against Deccan Chargers 144 runs out of a target of 182 were scored by Royal Challengers' overseas players, while Chris Gayle knocked 82 off a target of 142 against Mumbai Indians. Their Indian batsmen have averaged 16.76 to the foreigners' 40.85 in this IPL, as this week's Numbers Game points out. Does that mean knock over Gayle, AB de Villiers and Tillakaratne Dilshan cheaply and you have Royal Challengers sorted?

Rajasthan Royals, 12 points from 13 games Among the five teams, Royals have the least points from the most matches. They appeared to be peaking at the right end of the tournament after easy victories over Warriors and Kings XI Punjab, before losing to Super Kings. They seem to have the right personnel - in Brad Hodge and Owais Shah they have two of Twenty20 cricket's most experienced batsmen, Shane Watson and Johan Botha give them strong seaming and spinning all-round options, Shaun Tait (when he gets it right) is all fire and pace, Ajinkya Rahane has been the talk of the tournament and Rahul Dravid brings it all together, both as leader and batting anchor. The question is can Royals show the guts that people have come to associate with the team to get out of a tight situation and move on to a second title?

Kings XI Punjab, 12 points from 12 games After the 2012 IPL auction, Kings XI appeared to have the weakest squad of the lot. They were dealt a blow when Azhar Mahmood was unavailable early in the tournament due to visa issues and then they lost Adam Gilchrist to a hamstring injury five games into their season. Yet they have more than competed, beating Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore away from home. They now face one of the stiffer challenges of the battling middle teams, in that they must play Daredevils twice in their remaining four games. Kings XI will hope Shaun Marsh - one of the IPL's premier batsmen - and David Hussey - Twenty20 cricket's leading run-scorer - have saved their best for last.