Spot fixing in India vs England World Cup match?

BANGALORE: The Group B match between two of the title contenders India and England ended in tie at the P Chinnaswamy Stadium of Bangalore here Sunday but there are number of doubts about sanctity of the result after its outcome matched a prediction made by former Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne.

Shane Warne wrote on his twitter page earlier on Sunday, “Looking forward to the game between India and England today should be a cracker.. My prediction a tie !” A tie what he said and that’s what the outcome of the match was. Whether it was a gut feeling or a prediction or even an insight information but it has shaken the confidence of cricket lovers in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

After the match, Warnie tweeted, “Can’t believe my prediction 7/8 hours ago was right – tie !! Classic, didn’t think it would happen but hey-not bad !!!! 2011-my year ! Lol”.

India and England teams scored identical 338 runs from their 50 overs after the match took number of twists during the England innings where after a solid partnership by skipper Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell the match turned completely in India’s favour in the 43^rd over when England decided to take the Batting Powerplay.

England managed to score only 25 runs and during the process they lost four of their key batsmen including the two set batsmen. There was nothing changed in the weather conditions nor in the pitch behavior but all of a sudden English batsmen forgot how to bat. This led the cricket fans to think about probabilities of match fixing in the tier but cricket experts denied it completely saying match fixing is not possible in any match which has no result. However, they did point out some occasions in the match where they found some signals of spot fixing.

The 43^rd over was the occasion when it all went berserk as English skipper Andrew Strauss took the Batting Powerplay and a sudden collapse then started which saw four of the English batsmen going back into the pavilion in a rather irresponsible display of batting. Skipper Andrew Strauss, who was looking rock-solid, was undone by a simple Yorker by Zaheer Khan which not even reverse-swung. Then Ian Bell scooped one into the air and went back in the hut. Paul Collingwood stepped out of his crease and lost his furniture on a straight length delivery. And finally, Matt Prior also got out to not a special delivery. However, English tail-enders knew how to bat. Interesting, isn’t it?

If that wasn’t enough, let’s take a look at some incidents happened earlier in the England innings. Andrew Strauss knicked two edges during his 158 runs innings and on both occasions neither wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni nor bowlers appealed. On the second occasion, Sachin Tendulkar did appeal after he heard the knick standing at Mid-Wicket position, but neither bowler nor the wicketkeeper heard it. Strange, Strange, Strange!