I started my day in Jaipur, where the Shane Warne roadshow goes from strength to strength, and where I spoke to a couple of the Rajasthan Royals team about the experience of playing under one of cricket’s great motivators. I then caught a flight to Mumbai, where I waited for a couple of hours before boarding a plane to Bangalore, which is where I am now.

I left for Jaipur airport in the north of India at 12.30pm and sat down to work in Bangalore in the south at 9pm. A piece I wrote en route for an English paper might have had three different datelines. Jaipur? Mumbai? Or Bangalore? It was a toss-up. In the end, I went for Jaipur, which is where the interviews took place and the first words were written. Hell, the piece was about the Rajasthan team anyway…

But this is the kind of itinerary the players are used to. And the ones who qualify for the final on June 1 have got almost another month of it to go: it’s almost enough to demand our sympathy. But not quite.

Reading that last paragraph, I can feel prediction time coming along. Yes, I know it’s a mug’s game, especially in the changeable world of Twenty20. But sport’s supposed to be fun, so what the heck. Each side has now played five games out of 14 in the round-robin league table, and we’re starting to get a sense of who means business, even if things have been slightly skewed this week by the departure of the top Australian and New Zealand players.

Even so, if a gun were held to my head, I’d plump nervously for Delhi Daredevils to take on Rajasthan Royals in the final: the competition’s best seam-bowling attack against its most inspirationally led underdogs. The Royals have been the story of the tournament, and I’m just sorry I won’t be here to follow their progress. Rest assured: the first thing I’ll do when I get back to the UK is subscribe to Setanta. Enjoy!