All eyes now set on India vs Pakistan Semi Final

Today millions of people would witness what happens when emotions meet excitement when passion and patriotism comes hand in hand during the second semi final of ICC world cup 2011 where arch rivals India and Pakistan play for the spot in the final to clash against another sub-continent nation Sri Lanka to take home highest honor in the game called Cricket.

It has already been declared as a half holiday in Pakistan and corporate offices in India have either set up big screens in offices or have declared an off to give their employees a treat to witness the most awaited game of the world cup. The Prime Ministers of both countries, Sonia Gandhi, A list crowd of celebrities from Bollywood and India Inc have already landed on the Chandigarh’s tiny airport to make their way to Mohali.

Crores of rupees are set to change hands in betting during the India-Pakistan World Cup semi-final on Wednesday, with crime branch sources saying the stake would be as high as Rs.500-600 crore. Although the crime branch has already busted 13 betting syndicates in the city and arrested 37 people, the Mohali match would be attracting many more punters in and around the city.

According to the police, stakes had been unusually high during the matches played by India. “Most of the betting syndicates we busted were those who were unusually active during the matches played by India. Since Wednesday’s is a knock-out match and involves Pakistan, the stakes are very high. In the last 10 syndicates busted the bookies have calculated the rates using the popular betting sites and software,” said a police official.

Going by the records of the persons arrested for betting this year, the police have reasons to believe that the universal rates of the bets through the websites would be followed by the bookies in Delhi.

Police sources said that local bookies were clearly favouring India as favourites. “We had sent a decoy customer to know the ongoing market rates. We found out that the odds were placed at Rs.160-175 for every Rs.100 bet placed on India. At smaller levels, the odds are Rs.1.56 to Rs.1.75 for an Indian win,” said a senior police official.

“When it comes to Pakistan, the odds are Rs.3 for Rs.1 placed for their win or Rs.360-375. This is the average rate we got after talking to around 10 bookies. This will increase once the match starts.” The police said that the decoy customers, sent to many suspected bookies, were given a variety of options to play their bets on. “The bets were also placed on Yuvraj’s performance and the number of runs that would be scored in the first 15 overs,” said a crime branch officer.