IPL 2021: CSK coach Stephen Fleming talks about Dhoni’s struggle with the bat

Chennai Super Kings faced their second consecutive defeat in the UAE leg of the Indian Premier League 2021 after losing to Rishabh Pant led Delhi Capitals at the Dubai International Stadium on Monday. While both the teams have already qualified for the playoffs, they were looking to secure a spot in the top two positions of the points table.

Besides Rayudu, nearly every batsman struggled with the bat during the first innings of the match, amassing a paltry total of 135. CSK captain MS Dhoni, in particular, was criticized for his sluggish batting, having scored 18 off 27 balls at a strike rate of 66.66. In a virtual post-match press conference, CSK coach Stephen Fleming spoke about the loss and Dhoni’s efforts with the bat. “He (Dhoni) 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,” Fleming said.

He further added, “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. The other thing was their attack bowled very well. The last last five overs were very smart. So, it was tough going. 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.” CSK will be facing off against Punjab Kings in Dubai on Thursday for a final chance to finish in the top two.