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CHENNAI: Morne Morkel, IPL 5’s highest wicket-taker, was in great spirits on Friday morning and appeared eager to play the second qualifier against Chennai.

Eight hours later, much to everyone’s surprise, Delhi Daredevils skipper Virender Sehwag announced at the toss that the paceman with the Purple Cap wouldn’t be playing the game. No one could believe Delhi had actually taken such a decision.

Given the fact that Irfan Pathan was also not playing, what caused further controversy was the inclusion of Sunny Gupta, a little-known off-break bowler who plays for Tamil Nadu.

Naturally, the Chennai Super Kings batsmen lapped up the offering. Without Morne, Delhi didn’t have any penetration in the attack and all Murali Vijay & Co had to do was go on the front foot and hit through the line.

Chennai ended with the highest total of this season: 222/5. Gupta gave away 47 from three overs, and even Varun Aaron ended with unflattering figures of 4-0-63-2, the most any bowler has conceded in the short history of the event.

And what exactly happened to Morkel? He had, apparently, been dropped!

Morne had told the TOI in the morning during an exclusive chat: "I have had a great tournament so far. Hope we win these two games and go all the way."

All Delhi Daredevils team officials would say was that the South African pacer had "mild fever".

The bombshell was dropped by Mahela Jayawardene 45 minutes into the game, when he said on air that in the absence of Irfan Pathan (out with a finger injury), Morne was dropped to accommodate an extra all-rounder in the side. That’s where Andre Russell came in while Sunny Gupta replaced Irfan.

According to Jayawardene, the balance of the team would have been affected if Morne was playing. Ravi Shastri was prompt to say that "it was ridiculous logic".

Logic suggests that if any foreigner had to sit out, it could have been Ross Taylor, who is not in the best of form. The Daredevils think-tank obviously had other ideas.