CT IPL Flashback: When Albie Morkel snatched victory for CSK blasting 28 off Kohli's bowling

It was the year 2012, the 5th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) when Chennai Super Kings played host to Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 13th match of the tournament. Both the teams have always been known for having strong batting line-ups. They produce nail-biting finishes more often than not and it was one such occasion.

The visitors won the toss and elected to bat first on a belter of a pitch. Mayank Agarwal and Chris Gayle opened the innings for RCB and provided a splendid start. It was Agarwal who was the aggressor and took most of the strike. Their stand of 53 runs lasted for 5.2 overs out of which 45 were contributed by the Indian right-hander.

The Gayle-Kohli show

Virat Kohli joined Gayle in the middle at the fall of Agarwal and the duo went after the bowling from the outset. Gayle was a bit conservative at the start but came into his own after getting the feel of the pitch and hit 6 sixes in his knock. When he got out in the 17th over, they had added 109 runs off just 66 deliveries. The West Indian scored 68 runs off 35 balls and set the platform for a score well beyond 200.

At one stage, the score had motored along to 198/3 with 13 balls still to go. Just then, they were hit by a collapse as they lost 5 wickets within a space of 6 deliveries and scored only 11 runs off the last 10 balls. They ended up with the final score of 205/8 which in itself was huge but that slight slump at the death certainly made a difference of 10-15 runs to the ultimate target. Kohli was the fifth wicket to fall and he made 57 from 46 with 5 fours and 2 sixes.

CSK stayed in the hunt

Chasing over 200 is never easy in a 20-over game but the team who could do it better than anyone else was CSK. Right from the beginning, they maintained a good tempo especially due to the blitz of Faf du Plessis. Vijay at one end was struggling to time the ball and fell in the 7th over after scoring just 11 off 15. But du Plessis made up for his sluggishness as the score at that point read 56/1 after 6.5 overs.

Raina at number 3 didn’t last too long and departed for 23 off 14. But the skipper MS Dhoni made the strong move and promoted himself at number 4 and kept the required run-rate under check. Faf was picked up by Muttiah Muralitharan who also accounted for the previous two dismissals. He constructed a lovely knock of 71 off 46 and gave his team a great chance.

The required run-rate kept creeping up from then on but CSK had the belief with the presence of Dhoni and Dwayne Bravo at the crease. But Zaheer Khan came back and bowled a terrific 18th over in which he sent back Dhoni off the last ball that hiked the equation to 43 runs off the last 2 overs. Albie Morkel was the new man at the crease at number 6.

Kohli’s disastrous penultimate over

RCB had used up the overs of their frontline bowlers Zaheer Khan, Muttiah Muralitharan and Daniel Vettori. They were left with an over from Vinay Kumar and 2 from Raju Bhatkal who was blasted earlier for 35 runs in 2 overs. Kohli had bowled one over before but had gone for 8 runs and so Vettori gave him the task of bowling the 19th, keeping Vinay for the last.

Having 43 in the bank, Kohli bowled at the new man Morkel who slapped his first ball for four. The next ball was in the slot again and went sailing over long-on for a six. It was followed by another boundary off the third ball and a massive six over deep mid-wicket off the fourth. Kohli was perplexed as he did not have any idea where to bowl as he was going the distance on each occasion.

Needing 23 off 8, Morkel stole a couple off the fifth ball and the last ball went for the biggest six off a full-toss that made it 28 from the over. Kohli was shell-shocked as he saw the victory being snatched from his jaws.

The final drama

15 were required from the last over and RCB were still in with a good chance. Vinay started well conceding just a single off the first ball and made it even better by getting Morkel out off the second ball. 14 from 4 and the game had once again turned in RCB’s favour. But just then, Vinay did a howler and bowled a no-ball over the waist which Bravo sent for a boundary.

The momentum shifted once more for towards CSK and Bravo sealed the game with a six over backward point off the next ball. Then he took a single leaving 2 to get off the last ball which Ravindra Jadeja achieved with an outside edge to the third man boundary and they clinched the thriller by 5 wickets.

It was first the Kohli over that gave it away and then the no-ball in the last over from Vinay which meant that RCB lost the game which they should have won. It was a thriller that had everything but certainly not the one that Kohli would want to remember.

Here is the video: