Stephen Fleming
Stephen Fleming (Credits: Twitter)

Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming was not a happy coach last night as his side suffered their third consecutive loss of IPL 2020. Chennai Super Kings fell seven runs short while chasing 164 against the SunRisers Hyderabad in Dubai, maintaining their eighth position in the points table. Meanwhile, as scrutinization over MS Dhoni’s batting position arose, Stephen Fleming lost his cool.

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CSK captain MS Dhoni crafted a valiant knock of 47 while also battling fatigue; however, was not able to take his side over the line. Since the past few matches, experts have questioned the keeper-batsman’s approach for not going hard against the opposition’s bowling attack instead of taking it deep and slow, especially during a run-chase. Firstly, Dhoni’s batting spot has come into question being a captain.

SRH, CSK, MS Dhoni
MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja [Photo-Twitter]
CSK decided to send Kedar Jadhav at number four ahead of MS Dhoni as the former managed only three runs before falling to Abdul Samad. By this time, the three-time champions found themselves at 42-4 in the ninth over with only Faf Du Plessis reaching double figures amongst the top four. The opening batsmen and Shane Watson’s dismal form, in particular, has hurt the yellow army a bit too much. On Friday, the partnership between Dhoni and Jadeja worth 72 kept them in the hunt; however, there was too much to do in the end.

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“Really? I said really, it’s a question?” : Stephen Fleming

Ambati Rayudu, Stephen Fleming, MS Dhoni,
Photo by: Faheem Hussain /SPORTZPICS for BCCI.

At a post-match press conference in Dubai, a reporter questioned the strategy behind sending Kedar Jadhav ahead of MS Dhoni at number four. In response, Stephen Fleming felt aghast at the question and said that Kedar is their tailormade number four batsman while the skipper is a middle-to-backend player.

Fleming further stated that when a team loses early wickets as it was the case on Friday, the number four batsman plays in his position. On the other hand, the management would have preferred promoting MS Dhoni had the team got off to a flying start.

Really? I said really, it’s a question? Well he’s (Kedar Jadhav) our number four, Dhoni primarily is a middle-to-backend player. Kedar Jadhav is our No.4, he plays dual roles where if we get off to a good start, he might move down and let Dhoni up but when your losing early wickets then your No.4 batsman goes in so… You can’t keep, no I’ll stop there,” Fleming mentioned.

Watch the video here:

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