An Upset

63rd match: Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kings XI Punjab at Bangalore - May 14, 2013

Royal Challengers Bangalore 174/5 (20/20 ov); Kings XI Punjab 176/3 (18.1/20 ov)

Kings XI Punjab won by 7 wickets (with 11 balls remaining)

The memory loss of Miller continued. Umpires blundered without any hesitation or guilt. It was surprising to see bowler Awana appealing half heartedly when he had Gayle plumb LBW in the 7th over. The Umpire kept finger down. Later he kept it down even when Gilchrist was plumb LBW to Murali. 

Gayle let a free hit go by without scoring in slog overs, the KXIP bowlers choosing to bowl a number of no-balls in those overs. 

The odds indicated a RCB win (being inexplicably 1.5 in f/o RCB in the beginning), but in the end it was a comfortable win for KXIP.

Gilchrist, the captain, discovered his form just after the tournament had been over for his team!

Breaks and Time Outs

62nd match: Mumbai Indians v Sunrisers Hyderabad at Mumbai - May 13, 2013

Sunrisers Hyderabad 178/3 (20/20 ov); Mumbai Indians 184/3 (19.3/20 ov)

Mumbai Indians won by 7 wickets (with 3 balls remaining)

Pollard is a big name in IPL6. With IPL coming to an end, he hadn't yet come to limelight for his batting. So it was time to script a match to highlight his batting prowess. That was not all. From the start, the script continued to throw up turnarounds contrary to what one would have expected from natural cricket.

Mumbai had bowled magnificently in their last three games. And SRH batting is considered to be the weakest line-up in the tournament. Winning the toss, they chose to bat first and scored 19 in the first over. Soon the odds were up in f/o MI to above 1.8 from starting odds of 1.57 . One got an impression that it was going to be their day. They continued to bat well, failing to capitalize in the last overs with their hitting potential remaining not utilized/underutilized.  Needless to say, it was done to manipulate the session (in their last outing they had accelerated well in the end even through tailenders) as well as to keep the odds in check.

Patel gave a straight catch just after Dhawal couldn't hold on to his offering earlier. A straight catch of White was dropped by none other than Rayudu, supposed to be the best among the best fielders.

When MI started their chase, SRH were favourites with odds of about 1.75. The match and odds continued to fluctuate thinly before Tendulkar hit the six just before retiring in the 12th over. Earlier a chance to run him out was handled too casually by Sammy and missed. The match was in control of MI and odds much in their favour at about 1.6. With Tendulkar retiring and 2 quick wickets, an unexpected turnaround against the run of play took place and suddenly SRH were again the comfortable favourites.

With required run rate at staggering 15.5 at the end of 16 overs, the odds were 1.35 in f/o SRH. One didn't know it was time for another unexpected and decisive turnaround. The 17th and 18th overs yielding 29 and 21 runs respectively, the match was swiftly over in f/o MI leaving the punters backing SRH (the obvious choice at that point) high and dry.  

Noticeably, the two big turnarounds in the match came just after the two breaks. First break on account of Tendulkar being attended and then retiring, and second being the second strategic time out for the innings after the 16 over. The book 'Inside The Boundary Line' has attempted to bring out the significance of time-outs with regards to fixing.

Champion Team Flatters to Deceive

61st match: Rajasthan Royals v Chennai Super Kings at Jaipur - May 12, 2013

Chennai Super Kings 141/4 (20/20 ov); Rajasthan Royals 144/5 (17.1/20 ov)

Rajasthan Royals won by 5 wickets (with 17 balls remaining)

It was time for CSK to deceive those backing their team. They did so both while batting and while bowling. They were a comfortable 83/0 in 11.2 overs, before it was time for them to start losing wickets one after another. Late flourish by Bravo took them to 141, still a below par score. It was only in their last match that they had scored 223  batting first, against what is considered to be one of the best bowling attacks of IPL6.

RR started their chase being comfortable favourites at odds of around 1.5 to win, but were soon tottering at 19/3 after 5 overs. When Dravid got out at 45 in the 10th over, the odds were 1.4 in f/o CSK. 3 Sixes in the next over suddenly turned the match on its head and RR went on to win comfortably from there on, giving no chance to CSK backers (must have been a majority of such punters at that stage) to cover their losses. Suddenly hitting sixes and fours had become very easy. CSK hadn't been able to hit a single six during their innings.

The punters were deceived twice by CSK, first through batting and next through bowling.

The Thunder Whimpers

60th match: Kolkata Knight Riders v Royal Challengers Bangalore at Ranchi - May 12, 2013

Royal Challengers Bangalore 115/9 (20/20 ov); Kolkata Knight Riders 116/5 (19.2/20 ov)

Kolkata Knight Riders won by 5 wickets (with 4 balls remaining)

The thunderous batting line-up of RCB led by Gayle and Villiers just whimpered when put into bat by KKR. Was it because of the pitch and the bowling as made out to be? Was that the reason for Gayle to score 33 in 36 in a T20 game before getting out. Or was it the result of another surprise script being acted out. Shouldn't be much difficult to decide by now for the followers of this blog/my writings on the subject?

Fixers must have made a killing in the second session of RCB innings, as punters would haven't bet for such a low score by such a strong batting side, that was ultimately less than the minimum on offer at any point during the session.

The stumping of Gayle didn't appear to be as straight a decision as proclaimed by the commentators before the third umpire also ruled him out.

This time Abhimanyu Mithun was included in the RCB team out of nowhere for this particular match. His role turned out to be that of a villain. In this scripted match, his bowling and fielding lost the match for his team.

An Interesting Script

59th match: Kings XI Punjab v Sunrisers Hyderabad at Mohali - May 11, 2013

Sunrisers Hyderabad 150/7 (20/20 ov); Kings XI Punjab 120/9 (20/20 ov)

Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 30 runs

Script of this match can be said to be an interesting one. Though the movement of odds early in the match gave an indication of what was to come. 

KXIP won the toss and put SRH in. The odds were in f/o Punjab at about 1.8 at 28/0 in 4 overs. And with 51/4 in 7 overs, same were still 1.42, which normally should have been 1.3 or less. 

They lost their 5th wicket also soon, to be 52/5 in 8.4 overs, and recovered well through Parthiv Patel and late order batsmen to post 150 in 20 overs. Duly helped by Gilchrist who dropped a very simple catch (by his standards) of Patel earlier on. Scoring in end overs of first session was in trickles to manipulate the session. On the contrary, there was brisk scoring (above average) in the end overs of the second session.

Given KXIP batting, 150 was not a formidable score to chase still. They started as usual, losing Mandeep early and rebuilding through Gilchrist and Marsh. But they lost their wickets of consecutive balls in the 8th over, much before punters would have expected. Miller, continuing with his memory loss, followed them soon, and the game was over much earlier than anyone would or could have imagined when Gilchrist and Marsh were comfortably hitting boundaries. The substantial 5th wicket partnership that followed was of no consequence either to the match or to the odds, since Pomersbach, an inclusion in place of dreaded David Hussey and a known hitter, continued to search for the ball as per his brief. His bat was able to contact the ball only after there was no chance left for his team.

When Gilchrist and Marsh were rebuilding, Shastri came on the air to tell us that this pitch/wicket suited them both and suggested that there shouldn't be problem for KXIP to chase this moderate total. And a couple of overs after that, the match was virtually over in f/o SRH.

A Standard Script

58th match: Pune Warriors v Mumbai Indians at Pune - May 11, 2013

Pune Warriors 112/8 (20/20 ov); Mumbai Indians 116/5 (18.5/20 ov)

Mumbai Indians won by 5 wickets (with 7 balls remaining)

PW were the clear under-dogs and they were also to lose the match. Standard scripting, followed quite often in such a scenario is to make the underdogs go down initially, for odds to go down further in f/o the stronger team, then make the weaker team fight back for a brief period, causing hope/scare among the punters, before it collapses for the good for the remaining match.

Such a script was followed in this match also. Having lost 2 wickets by the 5th over, PW fought back through the 3rd wicket partnership between Yuvraj and Manish Pandey (84/2 in the 13th over), and then collapsed all of a sudden to restrict themselves to a hopeless 112 in 20 overs. 

Session scoring was well manipulated, they scoring only 12 runs in last 3 overs (8th to 10th) of the first session, and then hitting two sixes soon as the 11th over began. The score at the end of the 20 overs session was such as to be less than the minimum on offer during any point of time during the second session.

Though MI appear to have laboured while chasing, the odds remained below 1.1 in their favour for most of their innings, i.e. the punters led on by the 3rd wicket partnership of PW to back them with the temptation of higher returns were trapped for good with the fall of 3 quick wickets for PW to be 85/5. 

Another Script to Deceive and Be-fool

57th match: Delhi Daredevils v Royal Challengers Bangalore at Delhi - May 10, 2013

Royal Challengers Bangalore 183/4 (20/20 ov); Delhi Daredevils 179/7 (20/20 ov)

Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 4 runs

DD won the toss and put RCB in on what was supposed and told to be a slow wicket. The experts/commentators said that 150 would be a good score. Gayle got out early, bowled off an inside edge, for RCB to be 6/1 after 2 overs. And then they went on to post 183 runs, scoring 77 runs in last 4 overs, on a slow wicket, Umesh Yadav having been entrusted with the job of the bowling villain. In turn, in both the sessions the scoring was such manipulated as the end score to be more than that on offer at any point during the sessions.

DD started their chase fluently, scoring 25 runs without loss in first 3 overs. The commentator/s started saying that it was a good wicket. Soon Jayawardene got himself bowled off an inside edge. Then Sehwag hit some consecutive boundaries and got out playing his characteristic role this IPL. Warner also followed suit of flattering to deceive by top DD batsmen.

During all this, an interesting occurrence happened. Unmukt Chand nicked one with a big edge to the wicket keeper. Villiers, the wicket-keeper, didn't appeal and the umpire didn't give it out. Surely it was not in the script for Chand to get out at that juncture.

DD requiring 66 of last 6 overs with 7 wickets in hand and then 51 of last 3 with 4 wickets in hand, a last minute drama took place after 31 were required of last 8 balls. Two consecutive sixes by Pathan, and two boundaries of first 3 balls in the last over left them needing just 10 of last 3 balls. DD winning would have been a little too much, or the fixers' books decided the outcome, one can't say, but surely DD faltered now to lose before the last ball was bowled.