Venue
Wankhede, Mumbai
True bounce, square boundaries reward timing. Pace on, spin second-half. Top-order captain by default.
Tonight
Tonight's IPL fixtures, with the desk's read
A rolling snapshot of upcoming matches, the pitch report the desk is using, and the captain ledger as it evolves through the season.
Fixtures on the IPL 2026 calendar
A rolling snapshot of the next four matches. Tap a row for the full preview, pitch report and captain note.
| Match | Venue | Kick-off | Format | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MI vs CSK | Wankhede, Mumbai | 19:30 IST | T20 | Tonight |
| RCB vs KKR | Chinnaswamy, Bengaluru | 19:30 IST | T20 | Tomorrow |
| DC vs PBKS | Arun Jaitley, Delhi | 19:30 IST | T20 | Sat |
| GT vs SRH | Narendra Modi, Ahmedabad | 15:30 IST | T20 | Sun |
Match-day routine
What the desk publishes before every IPL fixture
Three hours before the toss: a fixture note with team news, weather and surface expectations. Ninety minutes before: a pitch report from the venue, with a fantasy angle. At toss: the confirmed XI, captain ledger update and an opening-over note. Through the chase: live point-scoring notes on the blog. After the game: a match report and an updated captain ledger for the next fixture.
The pattern repeats through the season. By the second or third week of IPL, the routine becomes muscle memory: pitch report at 4pm, XI confirmation at 7pm, team lock 30 minutes later.
Open the news desk
Pitch reports the desk uses
A venue-by-venue look at the surfaces that change the captain pick most.
Venue
Chepauk, Chennai
Slow turner. Spinners dominate middle overs. Captain a set batter with a high balls-per-boundary ratio.
Venue
Chinnaswamy, Bengaluru
Flat, short square boundaries. High-scoring night. Pace-bowling all-rounders are the captain pool.
How to read a pitch report
Five things a useful pitch report tells you, and the two it never does.
1
Surface colour and moisture
Green and tacky favours seam early; brown and dry favours spin later.
2
Boundary sizes and square dimensions
Short square boundaries reward ramp shots and reverse sweeps; long ones reward aerial pull shots.
3
Pace and bounce
True bounce flatters top-order batters; low bounce flatters spinners and ramp-shot batters.
4
Dew and evening conditions
Dew makes the ball harder to grip in the second innings; captain the chasing side accordingly.
5
Average first-innings score
A 180 surface plays very differently from a 140 surface. Use the venue's recent average as a sanity check.
A pitch report rarely tells you who will win the toss. That is fine: the desk's habit is to lock the team 30 minutes after the toss, not before.
Read the match-day desk tonight
From fixture notes at 4pm to captain ledger at 7pm. Updated through the chase.
What this page covers, in long form
A second pass through the topic with extra context, examples and the small habits the desk uses on its own teams.
Insight 01
Surface over form
The single biggest input to any fantasy cricket decision is the playing surface, not the recent form table. A dry Chepauk turner rewards a different XI than a flat Chinnaswamy track, and a green Mohali morning changes the captain pick again. Reading the pitch report the night before the toss is the highest-use habit a fantasy reader can build.
Insight 02
Captain over eleven
The captain pick is worth more than the eleven. A captain who scores 40 with two boundaries earns 96 fantasy points before any milestone bonus; the same innings from a non-captain earns 48. The captain multiplier is where most of the season's variance is decided, and the captain pick should be made after reading the surface, not before.
Insight 03
Bankroll beats picks
The desk's strongest readers win not because of better captain picks but because of better bankroll habits. A fixed stake per contest, three small contests instead of one big one, and a hard stop after three straight losses are the boring habits that keep readers in the contest long enough to learn.
A note on ownership
Ownership percentage is the most under-used input on a fantasy desk. In a large contest, the captain should rarely be the most-picked player. A captain who is owned by 8% of the contest and who fits the surface gives you a swing; a captain who is owned by 60% gives you no differential. Track ownership through the season, not just at the start.
Five reads the desk returns to
Articles, columns and references the desk keeps open in a browser tab through the season.
Match report
MI edge CSK in a 19-over chase
The desk's read on Tuesday's Wankhede fixture and what it means for the rest of the week.
Captain pick
Captain pick of the day
The 4-factor reasoning for tonight's captain pick: surface, form, match-up, role.
Pitch report
Chepauk reading: dry top, slow turn
What the surface looks like 90 minutes before toss, and the fantasy angle.
Team preview
Mumbai Indians: a rebuild on a flat deck
A new opening pair and a death-over reshuffle.
Three things to carry into the next page
A short reading-end summary for the desk's match-day readers.
1
The surface is the input
Read the pitch report before you read the line-up. The surface dictates the captain pool more reliably than the recent form table. A dry turner and a flat deck are different games; treat them as such.
2
The captain is the output
Pick the captain after the surface, form and match-up all point one way. If they do not point one way, pick the differential. The captain pick is the single biggest source of variance in any contest.
3
The bankroll is the discipline
Fixed stake per contest, three small contests instead of one big one, walk away after three losses. The boring habits are the ones that keep winners in the contest long enough to learn.
Editorial reminder
IPL Fantasy Score is an editorial publication. We do not run a paid fantasy platform; we publish coverage. The desk's habit is to describe the captain logic in plain language and let the reader decide. We do not promise winning teams. We publish reasoning.