If it is not staged Cricket, What is?

Match no. 46 - PWI vs RCB

PWI do it again. Come to a good winning position and then throw it away, the leading players showing the way. 

Let us start with the first session of 0-10 overs. With Gayle batting, RCB scored 23 runs in first 5 overs, 30 in 6, and 36 in 6.2 before Gayle got out. That is scoring was much slower than anyone would have expected with Gayle, along with Tiwary, on the crease. And after Gayle got out in 6.3 overs, 75 runs were scored in 10 overs, i.e. further 39 runs in 3.3 overs without Gayle. That explains the manipulation.

Before the beginning and from the beginning of the match, every one was emphasizing on the sluggish and difficult nature of the pitch and so it appeared in the initial overs. But after getting Gayle out, PWI started giving away the match, evident in their wayward and lose bowling that followed soon. And on a pitch on which a score of 140 plus was considered to be a good score, helped by the bowling side, RCB went on to amass 187. Not only this, even the side batting second at one stage was well in course to chase down this fearsome total. 

Chasing, PWI were 81/4 in 10.5 overs, almost a lost cause, the odds in f/o RCB coming down to 1.05. Suddenly both the batsmen started hitting boundaries and over boundaries at will. Pune were 143/4 after 16 overs, requiring only 45 runs in 4 overs with 6 wickets standing. Match was well in their grip from a lost cause (probably this part of the drama was an uncommon twist for PWI this season), though still the odds favoured RCB. Because it was now time for Mathews to get out. Soon Nayar and the last hope Uthapa also followed the suite. Quick wickets (Yuvi and Smith), then a flurry of sixes and fours, and again losing the game after getting it in grip - was it natural cricket? See the recordings (with some basic knowledge about cricket), use little grey cells, and know for yourself.

There was a reason for the twist caused by the 5th wicket partnership. Because in the last match, once out of match, the PWI didn't come back. So all the more, the punters would have taken match to be over and backed RCB with big amounts at low odds, and then found themselves trapped as a result of this partnership.

Thus the punters must have got jolted and robbed more than one way in this match. Fixers and bookies must have gone all the way smiling to their banks, courtesy the top names in cricketing world, once again.