Who's In Control Here?

Let me start this week's debrief with a slight digression. In the 1999 movie, "The Matrix", Neo (Keanu Reeves) meets a woman called "The Oracle", who can see the future. Their opening dialogue goes something like this-

Oracle: Don't worry about the vase
Neo: What vase?

(Neo turns around and knocks over a vase. It falls to the ground and breaks)

Oracle: That vase
Neo: How did you know?
Oracle: What's really going to get you thinking later is - would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?

Back to the ACL - If you've been following my blog, you know that I have a perfect 3/3 for last Friday's matches. And not just the simple who-won-who-didn't, but things like margin of victory and key match-ups. Kind of gets you thinking ... am I really predicting, are matches being fixed, or am I, in fact, controlling the universe? Without sounding too egoistic, I'll let you in on a little secret - it's the 3rd option.
Now to the post-match debrief -

Merchants defeated Taliban
"Defeated" is a huge under-statement. Only one team really showed up for this match. After last week's stinging loss, the Merchants came to the ground with their own sledging party and their own umpires as well. Turns out they didn't really need all that. The Taliban actually managed to play worse than last week, and word from the ground is that they were already out of the game mid-way through the first innings. HeyRam turned in a much-improved all-round performance (as predicted), but the surprise of the match was HammerDeep - his 2 huge sixes and decent bowling spell surprised everyone, including HammerDeep himself.
Sadly, the Merchants haven't learnt from the Anda-Bondas - they're the latest team to issue a public challenge. Me thinks this will end badly for them. A lot of the Merchants are Kolkata Knight Riders fans - one can see them ending up like KKR too.

Vindaloos defeated Anda-Bondas
A high-scoring game saw the Vindaloos edge out the Anda-Bondas in a close contest (both cricket and sledging, exactly as predicted). In the eyes of many, the Anda-Bondas "bit off more than they could chew" and have gotten their "just desserts" (if you don't get the puns, see Humpty Dumpty's public challenge email).
Key match-ups were well predicted. Supari Gupta's wonderful big-hitting saw the Anda-Bondas to what should have been a winning total. AnotherBun Nandi surprised everyone by bowling spin - didn't help; he got hit around extensively. The Vindaloos shuffled their opening combination but started poorly (again). Down the order, though, AnotherBun Nandi held up one end and Daffy Dutta came in late to win off the second-last ball.
The ACL chucking controversy also came to the fore in this match - while it's been a big part of all the matches so far, Big V took this opportunity to raise the stakes. Intimidating umpires seems to be a key part of the Vindaloos strategy.

Blackbucks defeated Crayditors
Again, went exactly as predicted, although this was a fairly low-scoring game. B-Shoe and RRC did well to chase a low total. Zen was outstanding for the top-heavy Crayditors, but couldn't find much support. This was a very poorly attended match, with even both owners showing low interest in the proceedings.
Rumour is that after 2 straight losses, Craydit is now looking to sell the Crayditors, and reinvest proceeds in the stock market, given his expertise. With the current economic scenario however, he may have to take a significant hit on his investment in the Crayditors. The Sensex has responded positively to this development, and is up 1.6% for the day, hovering around the psychologically significant 15K mark.