Thursday was the day when the former Pakistani fast bowler, Junaid Khan, tested the imagination and attention of the public by claiming possible match-fixing in the ongoing IPL 2025. This statement came in the wake of a controversial dismissal of Ishan Kishan of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) during a match played against the Mumbai Indians (MI) on Wednesday.
There was the third over bowled by Deepak Chahar, and Kishan lunged for a shot to the leg side but missed it completely. There was no appeal from the fielding team; still, MI’s wicket-keeper Ryan Rickelton collected the ball, and SRH batter Ishan Kishan walked back to the dugout.
Vinod Seshan, who was the on-field umpire for the match, initially thought of opening his arms wide; however, he quickly changed his decision when he saw the player moving toward the dugout.
Later replays showed that Kishan was, in fact, not out because the ball had not made contact with the bat. Junaid shared the issue through a video on X (formerly Twitter), captioning it, “Daal mein kuch kaala hai” (There is something fishy in it).
This is not the first time that IPL 2025 has come under allegations of match-fixing; just a week ago, Jaydeep Bihani, the convener of the ad-hoc committee, accused the Rajasthan Royals of similar allegations after their defeat to the Lucknow Super Giants. After two successive narrow wins from winning positions, Bihani accused the Rajasthan Royals of match-fixing, a claim that the franchise has strongly denied.
Amidst this controversy surrounding the Rajasthan Royals (RR), Tanvir Ahmed, a former Pakistani cricketer claims that match-fixers manage most of the IPL teams. He went on to add in his post on X, “BCCI bolta ha humari IPL duniya ke sab say bari league ha, han woh tou ha lekin fixing bhi sab say bari hote ha ziyada tar tou teams fixers kay pass hain.”
