IPL 2021: We Are Really Proud Of Ruturaj Gaikwad And His Progress - CSK Head Coach Stephen Fleming

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad received high praise from the head coach, Stephen Fleming after the former scored his maiden century in the IPL. Ruturaj was outstanding with the bat in the first innings, scoring 101 in 60 balls studded with nine fours and five huge sixes.

Unfortunately for Ruturaj, his innings went in vain as Rajasthan Royals (RR) fought back hard and chased down the target of 189 with over two overs to spare. Nevertheless, CSK’s faith in their opening batsman has paid dividends and Fleming was proud of the Ruturaj’s progress.

“It was a magnificent innings. It is not often that you have a centurion in your side and you come away with a loss. We will be a bit flat around that but the team will celebrate an individual performance that was of high class. It’s another continuation of the young man’s journey.”

“Our expectations have always been very high. Others are just starting to realize why we have such high regard for him. We are really proud of him and are really pleased with his progress. The way he is playing is outstanding,” Fleming said in a post-match virtual press conference.

“We were just outplayed in the second half” – Stephen Fleming

Fleming admitted that his team was thoroughly outplayed by RR during the run chase. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dube played exquisite knocks and completely deflated the CSK bowling in Abu Dhabi. Although the loss didn’t affect CSK’s position on the table, it will come as a wake-up call to the 3-time champions.

“We were just outplayed in the second half. We had a team that took it up to us. The only criticism can be that our adjustments were not as good as they needed to be. There was some fine batting, when you score 190, a team has to play well and they came out at us hard and they put us under a lot of pressure.”

“My observation was that as the dew settled, the pitch got better and better. The second half of our innings showed that as well. It is not bad to have a high-scoring game like this and be tested. If RR continues with this approach and attitude, they are going to finish well,” Fleming concluded.

With the win, RR keeps its hopes of making the playoffs alive. Four teams are now on 10 points in 12 matches and any slip up from here on will result in elimination from the playoff contention.

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