Dubai: After stumbling to a 37-run loss against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Chennai Super Kings (CSK) coach Stephen Fleming said that he would love to see a little more intensity from his batsmen through the middle phase of the innings.
CSK failed to chase down 170 and the side was restricted to 132/8, giving Virat Kohli-led RCB a win by 37 runs.
No CSK batsmen got going and the side was left to do a little too much in the final five overs of the innings. For MS Dhoni-led CSK, Ambati Rayudu top-scored with a knock of 42 runs.
“If we are not getting a start from our openers, we are getting into a bit of a hole, we are looking for positive solutions, in the match against RCB, the wickets fell right in the line, the talk was positive, what I would like is some intensity from the batsmen through the middle overs. We have plenty of batting and we are just being left to do a bit too much in the end. We have chased in every game and wickets are getting slower as the tournament is progressing ahead, it’s not easy once you lose wickets. I would love to see more intent,” Fleming said during the post-match press conference.
“It is one of the concerns we have, we have several concerns, we are working through them. Most teams that win, they will have a batsman from the top four who is the major run-scorer. Unfortunately, we are just having games where it is not working for us and it is exposing the middle order which is lacking a bit of confidence at the moment. We have to play with more intent and use the resources we have,” he added.
CSK is currently at the sixth position in the points table with four points from seven matches. The side needs to win at least five matches from their remaining seven to keep the dreams alive of qualifying for the playoffs.
“The playoff dream is getting further away if we keep playing like this, it is a very good challenge, if you look at a couple of factors, we have an aging team and the legs are getting tired. The other factor is the conditions so we are working hard on that. When we put this team together at the last auction, it was done so with the aim of winning five-six games at Chepauk. In the starting three games, we were looking to compete, we are trying to find a way, the things are a bit foreign and our results are showing that,” said Fleming.
While batting first, RCB scored 169/4 in the allotted twenty overs as Kohli played an unbeaten knock of 90 runs. CSK bowlers ended up conceding 66 runs in the final four overs.
“There was some good batting, probably we did not go wide enough, we were caught between two methods, we were all over the place, under pressure today, we got a bit confused with the long boundaries and the pace of the wicket, we ended up in between, we were neither straight nor wide,” Fleming said.
CSK will next lock horns with SunRisers Hyderabad on Tuesday, October 13 at the Dubai International Stadium. (ANI)
