IPL 2026 at the halfway stage: Do bowlers even matter?

In this episode of the show, Binksy, Baldy and Stu discuss a range of topics from IPL 2026 at the halfway stage. Who has impressed? What predictions did we get wrong? And what did we get right? We also touch on the current overseas tours involving the Black Caps and NZ A, plus check in on the England Test contenders now that the County Championship season is underway.

We start the show by discussing the flurry of runs we've seen at the IPL over the past few days. Shreyas Iyer and the Punjab Kings chased down the Delhi Capitals' 264, and Sunrisers Hyderabad made light work of a 220+ run chase against Rajasthan Royals. We saw hundreds for Sanju Samson, Sai Sudharsan, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and KL Rahul, but many of those players ended up on the losing side.

As the conversation continues, we wonder whether bowlers can ever turn the tables on quality batters, compare Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to Wayne Gretzky, dismay at the struggles of the Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans and look back in horror at some of our pre-tournament predictions. There's also praise for RCB and the unbeaten Punjab Kings, who sit atop the table at the halfway point of the season.

To round out the show, we move away from the IPL to talk about two Wills from the Black Caps - the return of Will O'Rourke and the form of Will Young. We also shine a spotlight on some of England's leading contenders for Test spots now that the County Championship is underway, such as Zak Crawley, Jamie Smith and James Rew.

We'll be back in your feed again soon with more cricket news, including plenty of IPL coverage and the current NZ tours. Until then please take the time to give us a like, follow, share or !) review at your favourite podcast provider, or tell a friend to download. It really helps others find the show and is the best thing you can do to support us. You can also find all our written content, including our Hall of Fame series, at our website.

You can also dip back into our guest episodes - including conversations with Mike Hesson, Shane Bond and Mike Hussey, current players such as Matt Henry, Sophie Devine and Ish Sodhi, coaches Gary Stead, Jeetan Patel and Luke Wright, as well as Barry Richards, Frankie Mackay, Bharat Sundaresan and many more fascinating people from all across the cricketing world. And if you'd like to reach out to us with feedback, questions or guest suggestions, get in touch at thetoporderpodcast@gmail.com.

Thanks for listening.

0:00 Intro
2:20 IPL 2026: runs galore in PBKS v DC & SRH v RR
5:25 Will bowlers ever top the batters in T20?
16:15 Can anyone catch the current top 4?
21:45 Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's fantastic form continues
26:50 Prediction mulligans: Gujarat & Mumbai's struggles
33:15 RCB looking very consistent
37:30 Punjab Kings unbeaten
41:30 Black Caps news: Will O'Rourke & Will Young
49:00 County Championship: England contenders form updates