IPL-8: Can't plan for AB de Villiers, says KKR's Morne Morkel

Albie Morkel almost made the first couple of days at IPL-8 a family show. After younger brother Morne Morkel had starred in Kolkata Knight Riders’ seven-wicket win over 2013 champions Mumbai Indians at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday, the Delhi Daredevils batsman fell short by literally a few metres in the chase at Chennai.

Kolkata: Albie Morkel almost made the first couple of days at IPL-8 a family show. After younger brother Morne Morkel had starred in Kolkata Knight Riders’ seven-wicket win over 2013 champions Mumbai Indians at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday, the Delhi Daredevils batsman fell short by literally a few metres in the chase at Chennai.

RCB’s AB de Villiers and Morne Morkel

“I’m happy for Albie, who was playing only his second or third game after a long injury lay-off,” gushed Morne. “He was also up at No 3 after being at the back-end,” he reminded.

As KKR and Royal Challengers Bangalore brace themselves for today’s battle here, another South African sub-plot may unfold.

'AB can score 360 degrees'
“You can’t really plan against AB de Villiers; only thing to do is enjoy the contest between bat and ball,” said Morne about plans to restrict his fellow-countryman, his response loaded in both respect and the refreshing ‘looking forward to’ flavor. “He has all the shots in the book and scores 360 degrees. You can’t have a set plan for him and need to think on your feet. You need to enjoy the experience and try and execute those plans,” added the tall KKR pacer, identifying AB’s ability “to read the game very well”.

“As soon as you set a field, he’ll sum it up and have a gameplan around that.”

RCB have a couple of other destructive strokemakers in skipper Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle.

Morkel quite relished the pace and bounce on the Eden wicket but feels “it will get lower and slower as season progresses”.

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