The Indian Premier League (IPL) has gone back to an old system to organise group stage matches of the league due to addition of two new teams this year: Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans.
So how does the new system works?
The 10 teams will play a total of 14 league matches (seven home as well as away), followed by four playoff matches.
Each team will play five teams twice while facing the remaining four teams only once (two only home as well as away).
To decide which teams will play against whom, teams have been divided in two virtual groups based on the number of times being crowned the IPL Champions followed by the number of times the teams reached the final of the tournament.
There are two groups now: Group A and Group B
Group A: Group B
Mumbai Indians Chennai Super Kings
Kolkata Knight Riders Sunrisers Hyderabad
Rajasthan Royals Royal Challengers Bangalore
Delhi Capitals Punjab Kings
Lucknow Super Giants Gujarat Titans
Each team will play twice with the teams in their group and with the team in the same row in the second group. With the rest of the teams in the second group they will play only once during the season.
For example, in Group A, Mumbai will play two matches each against Kolkata, Rajasthan, Delhi and Lucknow. Mumbai will also play two matches against Chennai and one match each against other teams in Group B.
Similarly, in Group B, Bangalore will play two matches against Chennai, Hyderabad, Punjab and Gujarat. Bangalore will also play two matches against Rajasthan and one match each against other teams in Group A.
Take a look below to underatand which team will play whom and how many times?
As you can see from the chart, Mumbai Indians will play KKR, RR, DC, LSG and CSK twice and rest of the teams once. While KKR, RR, DC and LSG are in MI's group, which is Group A, CSK are the team in the same row as MI. You can check out number of games and clashes for all 10 teams in this chart.
