Kolkatta papers claiming match fixing in the match between Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians.
Looks like there was an agreement that Mumbai Indians would win the match, but would play slowly, so that they would win only in 19th over. Knight Riders did not want to screw up their run rate by losing the match by big margin. Also, Mumbai Indians agreed that they would allow Knight Riders player to get the DLF Maximum Sixes award as well. Looks like proof of this is going to come out in the papers on Sunday.
Some sort of quid pro quo was worked out, and match was fixed. For most cricket lovers, it was obvious something was wrong from how slow Uthappa and Bravo were playing, even after the match was all but tied up. There was absolutely NO URGENCY to improve run rate, nor was there any attempt by Kolkatta to get wickets, or to do anything different.
IPL got hit badly by the Bhajji incident, but I think this might really hurt IPL a lot more. In any case, the public interest was expected to fall after the Aussies and Kiwis left - but this might show the whole thing to be a farce.
