Indian Premier League

The Indian Premier League is a Twenty20 competition played in India each year and contested by ten franchise teams. Recent seasons have started in the second half of March and finished with the final at the end of May.

The league stage is the part the table measures. The ten teams are split into two groups of five, seeded on how many titles and finals each franchise has to its name, and every side plays 14 matches: home and away against the four other teams in its own group, home and away against one designated team from the other group, and once each against the remaining four. That comes to 70 league matches, followed by four more in the playoffs.

The points themselves are simple. A win is worth two, a defeat nothing, and a match abandoned without a result splits them one apiece. Teams finishing level on points are separated by net run rate, which weighs the rate a side has scored at across the season against the rate it has conceded at.

The top four go through to the playoffs, and where a team finishes inside that four matters. First and second get two attempts at reaching the final. Third and fourth get one.