Stephen Fleming defends MS Dhoni after slow knock against DC

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) suffered their second consecutive loss and went down to Delhi Capitals (DC) by 3 wickets. CSK batters had an off day as they struggled to find their rhythm against the on-fire DC bowling attack. The openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis have been doing a great job for their team so far. However, they could not score much and were dismissed cheaply against DC. It was an opportunity for the middle order to step up to the occasion but barring Ambati Rayudu, who scored 55, none came to the rescue.

A lot was expected from skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni but the wicketkeeper batter disappointed the most. Dhoni crawled his way to a 27-ball 18. After the slow knock, Dhoni came on the radar of the fans and experts. However, the skipper found support from coach Stephen Fleming who said the wicket was not the easiest to bat and most batters from both teams struggled to get going.

“He wasn’t the only one. It was a difficult day for strokeplay. It was a tough wicket to score big on, in terms of the big shots. Both teams struggled with that towards the end of the innings.”

“Sometimes you set your sights too high, too many. Probably we were 10-15 runs short of having a match-winning score. That’s the difficulty at the moment, trying to assess what the conditions are in all three different grounds. There was no lack of intent, we just had to stabilise after a couple of mistakes,” he added.

“The other thing was their attack bowled very well. The last last five overs were very smart. So, it was tough going.”

With two back to back losses, CSK are in a spot of bother. Even though they have qualified for the playoffs, they would ideally like to settle for a top-two finish. RCB is chasing them thus the Men in Yellow need to secure a win in the final game to bolster their chances. While Fleming was not concerned about the consecutive losses, he said the team needs to up their intensity.

“I would rather have two defeats now than two semi-finals. Today was a bit scrappy. There was a lot of mistakes from both sides. Sometimes, when you have qualified things do change a little bit. We have worked very hard to keep up the intensity. We are on the back of three games in five days with the travel. There were probably clumsy mistakes from us, which was the most disappointing aspect.”

“But in terms of the competition, one of the key things is just rebounding. Second on the table, chance to get a top two place is a positive position but we need to get our intensity back and the rhythm we had before these two games,” said the New Zealander