By Gia Huynh 
So I figured hey, why not rank IPL teams by danger levels this season? Started scratching my head about how to measure “dangerous” first. Decided it’s gotta be three things: how many times they chase big totals, how often they snatch wins from losing positions, and how many star players can turn games solo.
Gathering the mess
Dove straight into scorecards from all matches since April. Wrote down every time a team won chasing 180+ or clawed back from near certain loss. Flipped between the official IPL website and my crumpled notebook like a madman. Spilled chai all over page three – now it smells like stale tea and desperation.
Realized halfway that stats don’t show clutch moments. Rewatched highlights screaming “SEE THAT?! THAT’S WHAT I MEAN!” when some tailender smacked sixes under pressure. My neighbors probably think I’ve cracked.
Sorting the chaos
Laid out all teams on my kitchen table with sticky notes:
- Chennai: Notes like “Dhoni finish” and “depth gone?” everywhere
- Mumbai: BIG red “Bumrah factor” circle with anxiety scribbles
- Bangalore: “Kohli dependency” underlined thrice
Started shuffling teams like poker cards. Moved Rajasthan up when remembering their crazy heists last month. Dropped Punjab down after that collapse where they needed 30 off 30 with 8 wickets left and still bottled it.
Why this even matters?
Truth bomb – did this because last Saturday at Lucky Singh’s bar, Raj bet me 5000 rupees that Gujarat would choke in playoffs AGAIN. Had zero facts to shut him up. That smug mustard stain on his jersey haunted me all week.
My final ranking after 3 days? Here’s the spicy take:
- S-tier killers: Kolkata (those openers murder bowling), Hyderabad (sorry haters, their middle order’s scary)
- A-tier threats: Rajasthan, Chennai (yes they’re old but clutch)
- B-tier maybes: Bangalore, Delhi
- C-tier pretenders: Everyone else
Tell you what though – doing this made me realize stats lie more than politicians. You just KNOW when a team’s got that killer vibe watching them. Raj better pay up.
Dung Huynh 