IPL 2020: 'The Game Was Almost Over In The Powerplay', Stephen Fleming Said After CSK's Loss Against MI

Head Coach of the Chennai Suoer Kings, Stephen Fleming has said that they were shocked how things panned out for CSK at the start of the game as the Mumbai Indians pacers blew the Super Kings batting order by picking five wickets in the powerplay itself.

Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah wreaked havoc in the first six overs as CSK were 24/5 by the end of the powerplay. Boult removed Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, and Ravindra Jadeja in his three-over spell. From the other end, Jasprit Bumrah took wickets of Ambati Rayudu and N Jagdeeshan in consecutive balls of his first over.

A late blitz from Sam Curran took CSK to a respectable total of 114. In the absence of Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan walked out to open with Quinton de Kock. Both the left-handers made a mockery of the target and finished the chased in 12.2 overs, handing CSK their first defeat of 10 wickets in the IPL history. The Dhoni-led team keep languishing at the bottom of the table.

We were pretty stunned really: Stephen Fleming

After a horrible display by the batters, CSK head coach in the press conference said that they were stunned by the quick loss of wickets. He admitted that they lost the game in the powerplay when they lost five wickets. As skipper MS Dhoni had said earlier, youngsters will be given opportunities; however, Gaikwad and Jagdeesan failed to score runs against a strong MI bowling attack.

Stephen Fleming said during the post-match press conference, “We were pretty stunned really. It was a terrible powerplay. To lose wickets so quickly, so frequently, the game was almost over in the powerplay. Obviously, we had a couple of young guys who had an opportunity we didn’t work out,” 

“So the message during the time out was to have some runs on the board to give us half a chance in the game as our bowling was strong due to overseas players,” he added.

Our spin bowling has been a little bit ineffective: Stephen Fleming

Imran Tahir after warming the bench for 10 matches was finally introduced in the eleven. However, Stephen Fleming laments that there were not enough runs on the board for Imran Tahir. Fleming also acknowledged that his side looked feeble in the spin department without Tahir, but because of the combination of the overseas players, the leg-spinner has been sitting out. It sums up the kind of tournament the CSK has had.

“The reason why he was there was to introduce Tahir. We had a problem with balance throughout; our spin bowling has been a little bit ineffective.

“So when you have one of the best T20 spinners, we were keen to introduce him but when we did that today, we had a poor batting display. It sums up our tournament, everything we tried, turned out to be the opposite,” Stephen Fleming said.

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