Prince Yadav Stuns Kohli for Rare IPL Chase Duck

For one ball, the whole chase stopped breathing.

Virat Kohli had walked out in the familiar script. Big target, night chase, crowd waiting for the old control. Then Prince Yadav hit 140.4 kmph, bent the ball back in, and knocked over off stump.

Kohli was gone for 0. In an IPL chase, that had not happened to him since 2017. For a player built on hunting totals, that number cuts deeper than most ducks.

Prince Yadav owns the moment

The dismissal came in the second over of RCB’s chase against Lucknow Super Giants. Prince did not need a long spell to announce himself. He needed one sharp inswinger and a batter who misread it by a fraction.

That is how fast T20 cricket turns. One ball can turn a packed stadium quiet. One ball can give a young bowler a line in IPL memory.

Kohli has seen almost every trick in white-ball cricket. Bowlers have tried pace, spin, width, bouncers, slower balls, and full traps. This one was simple and deadly. It came fast, it came in, and it beat the bat.

Prince also entered a very short list. After Dhawal Kulkarni in the 2016 IPL season, he became only the second bowler to dismiss Kohli for a duck in this particular IPL context.

Lucknow set a brutal chase

The wicket mattered even more because Lucknow had already made the match heavy for RCB. Rain interruptions cut the contest to 19 overs per side. That often makes batting plans messy, but Lucknow handled it better.

They posted 209 in 19 overs. In plain terms, RCB needed to score at 11 runs an over from the start. That leaves no room for a slow first 4 overs, no room for two early wickets, and certainly no room for Kohli walking back on 0.

Mitchell Marsh was the main reason Lucknow got that far. He smashed 111, the kind of innings that changes the mood of a dugout. Nicholas Pooran added 38, keeping the pressure on RCB’s bowlers.

Rishabh Pant then finished with an unbeaten 32. That mattered because rain-shortened games can punish teams who relax near the end. Lucknow did not let the innings drift.

For RCB, Josh Hazlewood, Krunal Pandya, and Rasikh Salam Dar took 1 wicket each. But wickets alone did not slow the scoring enough. Lucknow kept finding boundaries and forced RCB into a chase full of risk.

RCB fight, then wobble

RCB’s reply began badly. Their opening pair was back with only 9 on the board. In a chase of 209, that is not just a poor start. It changes how every batter after that must play.

Rajat Patidar and Devdutt Padikkal then did the repair work. Their 95-run stand for the third wicket brought RCB back into the game. It gave the chase shape after the early damage.

Patidar’s wicket shifted the match again. Once he fell, RCB lost control of the chase. T20 collapses rarely look dramatic at first. They begin with one batter trying too much, then another being forced into the same corner.

Tim David kept RCB alive with 40 from just 17 balls. That is serious late-overs hitting. For a while, the match still had the nervous feel of an IPL finish where one over can ruin all calculations.

But Lucknow had just enough runs, and enough wickets at the right time. They won by 9 runs through the DLS method, the rain rule used when weather changes the length of a match.

Prince finished with 3 wickets. Shahbaz Ahmed took 2. Those figures tell the story better than any dressing-room speech could. Lucknow’s batting gave them the cushion, and their bowlers kept landing blows.

Why this duck felt different

Every great batter gets out for 0. That is not the story. The story is the setting.

Kohli is not just another top-order player in a chase. His whole white-ball legend has been built around control under pressure. He turns targets into routines. He counts overs like a banker counts cash.

So when he falls without scoring in a chase, it feels unusual. Not because it cannot happen, but because it breaks a familiar rhythm.

This IPL season had also shown Kohli in strong touch. That made the dismissal sharper. A batter in form usually looks bigger than the match. Prince made him look human for one ball.

For young bowlers, such moments can change careers. Prince did not just take a wicket. He took the wicket every new bowler wants on his record. Selectors notice this. Coaches notice it. Senior players remember it.

There is also a selection-room angle here. IPL teams spend months looking for Indian fast bowlers who can bowl hard lengths and still attack the stumps. A 140.4 kmph inswinger to Kohli is not a small audition.

RCB, meanwhile, will look at the match with irritation. They had a big partnership. They had a finisher firing. But the early damage left them chasing the chase itself.

That is often the hidden cost of losing a player like Kohli early. It is not only the runs he does not score. It is the calm he does not bring. The next batters must create both tempo and belief.

Lucknow will take more than 2 points from this. Marsh’s hundred gives their batting a strong reference point. Prince’s spell gives their bowling unit a fresh edge. In a long IPL season, those memories matter.

For fans, the image will stay simple. Kohli beaten, off stump gone, Prince running in joy. Cricket loves its big names, but it survives on these sudden reversals. One young bowler, one perfect ball, and a chase that never fully recovered.