Why are fans calling the Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals match fixed?
Fans have been constantly discussing this issue throughout the IPL. The standard has dropped significantly, all the matches are one-sided, either the chasing team collapses easily or the batting team scores 250 runs first and takes the match away.
What happened that Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals were forced to face the wrath of the fans for their match being fixed?
It is not the first time that such allegations have been made in the IPL, and there is no need to prove the allegations. History is witness that the IPL has been accused of fixing in the past as well, where teams were found to be involved in betting and spot-fixing.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bat first, which surprised everyone as everyone said the pitch was quite slow. When Mumbai came to bat, it seemed so too. In the first over, Trent Boult dismissed Rohit Sharma cheaply and then Sandeep Sharma took the wicket of Ishan Kishan.
After that, Mumbai Indians were 55/4 and it seemed like 150 was far away. But a 98-run partnership between Tilak Varma and Nehal Wadhera brought Mumbai back into the match.
However, the mood of the game changed in the last four overs. Mumbai Indians lost 5 wickets in the last four overs and scored only 28 runs, which is not acceptable by any standard in a T20 game.
When Rajasthan Royals came to bat, they needed just 180 runs to win. This score seems quite low in today’s era of aggressive batting, but the pace was slow and it seemed like Mumbai Indians had a chance to defend this score. But as we know, what happened?
Rajasthan Royals put on 61 run stand in the powerplay without losing a wicket. From here, the match was almost in Rajasthan’s pocket.
Yes, the match was a bit strange for Mumbai Indians
Then came the rain, which spoiled Mumbai’s luck even more. When the rain came, the ball became wet and the spinners had trouble bowling. Bumrah also bowled a no-ball and conceded 16 runs.
The most surprising thing was the fielding of the Mumbai Indians bowlers. They dropped three catches. Perhaps the wet day could be a major reason as fielding is not that easy after rain nor is bowling easy.
But when you play cricket at a professional level and play cricket in a big tournament like the IPL, you are expected not to drop catches. The catch that Wadhera dropped, he not only dropped it but also perrired it for 6 runs.
This shows how poor Mumbai Indians’ fielding was and later Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya himself said that this was not their best day on the field in the IPL.
But fans should not call this match fixed. Every team makes mistakes. Yes, it is a different matter that whenever there is a match of Mumbai Indians, such incidents happen a little more, there are controversial decisions and it seems that the match is not going on an ideal path.
Even then, we would like to say that it was a non-fixed game. Yes, Rajasthan got a bit lucky due to the rain, the pitch became better for batting, three catches which made their work easier and they are playing very well at home this time. They have won 4 matches out of 5 matches played so far and now they have 14 points too, so they are almost qualified.
