Morkel denied by six feet

Ten minutes ago they had applauded Albie Morkel warmly when he brought up his fifty, a gesture of affection for a long-serving former player. Now the Chennai crowd wished he wasn't at the crease. With 19 to get from six balls, Morkel had swung at a wide one from Dwayne Bravo and edged him fine, far enough to the right of third man to pick up four.

Till now, MS Dhoni had only needed minimalist gestures to move his fielders around. Stand and point to send someone to a new position, a waggle of his glove for subtler adjustments. Now he exhaled and swept his arm back and forth, pointing first to R Ashwin, who had been slow to the ball with his sprint and dive at third man, and then to Dwayne Smith, stationed at one of two backward points. They were to switch positions.

Fifteen off five. Delhi Daredevils had kept losing wickets, but a combination of Morkel, a below-par Chennai Super Kings total, and the nature of Twenty20 games - which often take only one or two overs to go from one-sided to desperately close - had kept them in the hunt. Just about - they were eight down at the start of the final over.

Dhoni's field - two backward points, third man, sweeper cover, mid-off; long-on, deep midwicket, deep backward square leg, short fine leg - dictated where he wanted Bravo to bowl. Short, angling across the left-handed Morkel. There was enough pace and bounce on this surface to make it hard to manufacture hits down the ground from that sort of length, and three leg-side boundary riders for any attempts at pulling or hooking.

So far, Bravo had mostly bowled this sort of length to Morkel, and had even given away two off-side wides when his short, angled-away balls slid marginally off-target. But now he had bowled a length ball, and Morkel had hit it for four, even if he hadn't hit it in the intended direction.

Next ball was short, but the sort of short ball that sits up at waist height, and Morkel may have tested the leg-side field with a more powerful hit. As it happened, he sent it rolling to long-on. A single.

With 14 to get off four balls, Imran Tahir miscued Bravo to deep midwicket, down the throat of Suresh Raina. Nine down. But the batsmen had crossed over, and Morkel was back on strike.

In ran Bravo, and down came another length ball, perfectly within Morkel's swinging arc. Morkel cleared his front leg and swatted it away over cow corner. Six. Daredevils now needed eight from two balls.

In ran Bravo, and this one was just about back of a length, and the angle forced Morkel to slice his on-the-up drive squarer than he may have intended. It left the fielder at sweeper cover, Raina, with a lot of work to do, a full-tilt sprint to the right and a dive to stop a ball that was not only hit hard but also spinning away from him after it bounced. Raina cut it off, keeping it down to two.

Six from one. Morkel on strike, batting on 69. He had batted 59 times for Super Kings in the IPL. He had hit 48 sixes for Super Kings. Now he was batting against them. Dhoni knew everything he needed to know about him. So did Ashwin, who ran up to his captain to have a word. More gesturing, of the non-minimalist kind. One of the backward points went to extra cover. Third man came into the circle. Mid-off dropped back to long-off.

In ran Bravo again, looking to go full and straight. What he sent down wasn't quite full enough to deny Morkel elevation, and was wide enough outside off for Morkel to free his arms and swing powerfully through the line. The ball soared into the Chennai night. Three stands were unoccupied, by decree, but the seats in it were yellow. Two-thirds of the crowd that was jammed into the other stands was also wearing yellow. For six seasons they had cheered Morkel as one of their own. Now he seemed to have hit the winning six against their team.

Or had he? The long-off fielder, haring to his right, slowed down, and ran towards the middle of the ground, where all his teammates were converging. The ball had bounced - only six feet from the rope, and only once, but it had bounced. By the narrowest of margins, Albie Morkel had missed out on putting one over his old team.