Stephen Fleming reflected on the main turning points in CSK's loss to RR in Guwahati on Sunday, March 30. CSK lost the match by 6 runs in Guwahati and Fleming pointed out his side's performance in the powerplay, Riyan Parag's catch of Shivam Dube and Wanindu Hasaranga's bowling performance as the main reasons for the defeat.
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00:00What went wrong in the game?
00:03I think if you analyse the game, it's probably the two power plays. Our power play with the
00:10ball went for the best part of 80 runs and we were only able to manage mid-40s or early
00:1640s. So I think that's on the scoreboard the big difference and we were also sloppy
00:24in the field compared to Rojasthan who were outstanding. So those would be the two immediate
00:30take-aways from the game.
00:32Since 2019 you haven't chased 180 plus goals, so has that been a problem?
00:46We've just got to keep working hard. I did see that stat. We won a final that was revised
00:51which was close, but apart from that it has been a little bit of slim pickings. Each year
00:58is different and this group we are learning. It is quite a different group to what we've
01:04had in the past. So we're learning one about the combinations of the team and then getting
01:10to know the players as well, what they can and can't do.
01:14The start of a three-year cycle is always a little bit difficult, especially if you're
01:17just short of a little bit of form. We are pushing hard to try and find that form, but
01:22we're making mistakes doing it. Not far away, just as much as I pointed out the first six
01:27overs where we bowled weren't great, I thought the next 14 were outstanding. You can see
01:31the potential that's there and a little bit better with the bat, but still some work to
01:35go, no doubt about it.
01:37You are a long time lucky to also come to this field?
01:43Yeah, he got some good wickets. On another day, it might have been an opportunity for
01:49us. I think Parag's catch was the turning point in the match. The Dube match-up was
01:56going our way, but he had courage, Mr Ring, you can't deny that. He certainly gave the
02:01ball air. Sometimes you give the ball air and in this competition you can go the distance,
02:05but he had the courage to do that. Guy Codd's wicket as well was very clever, so he held
02:11his nerve and had a good day.
02:13What's the turning point of the match? Is it Ruturaj's brilliant or Nitesh Rana's batting?
02:28Nitesh Rana played really well. I thought he combatted a bit of bounce and a bit of
02:33seam early to get them off to a great start. I mentioned to Parag's catch, Dube is a devastating
02:40player to spin and they were looking to bowl spins, so we thought we were in with a good
02:45opportunity to advance the game. So that catch was big and then classy bowling from Hasaranga
02:50to Ruturaj, so probably three pretty good moments.
02:53Many people want to say that MS Dhoni batted much later. What do you think?
03:08It's a time thing. MS judges it. His body, his knees aren't what they used to be. He's
03:27moving OK, but there's still an attrition aspect to it. He can't bat 10 overs running
03:32full stick, so he will gauge on the day what he can give us. If the game's in the balance
03:37like today, he will go a little bit earlier, and he backs other players when other opportunities
03:43are up. So he's balancing that. I said it last year, he's too valuable to us, leadership
03:48and wicket keeping, to throw him in at 9, 10 overs. He's actually never done that. So
03:54look, from around 13, 14 overs, he's looking to go, depending on who's in.
04:00Do you think there's mounting pressure on the team?
04:12No, there's pressure at full stop from ball one. It doesn't change. You look at the nature
04:19of the loss, I was a little bit grumpy in the last game, just with probably the way
04:24we read the wicket and the way we played this game. We were in the fight, which is, I'm
04:28okay with that. We can get a lot better, and that excites me, but I do get aware that
04:34time goes pretty quickly in this competition. We've won one out of three, it's not all bad.
04:40The competition's about that. Everyone's beating each other, although a couple of teams are
04:44up the top. But the way we respond, the resilience to a loss like this is always very important.
04:50And going back home, I just hope we can get a wicket that we can understand and play well
04:55on with the weapons that we've got. But it's not all bad, we did some good things, but
04:59we just need to tidy up a few others.
05:00Do you think this wicket played like a chip-off wicket, or do you think it's better than the previous?
05:08I haven't really thought about it, to be honest. Each one that I look at is a mystery to me.
05:14You're trying to weigh up whether it's due, how sticky it feels, how much water's been
05:19put in it. Is it going to get tougher later on? The trend is usually to bowl first, but
05:26we've seen a couple of pitchers play harder. We felt the one in Chippewa was harder the
05:30other day, which is unusual. So it's just a case of assessing and sometimes maybe losing
05:36the toss. But it's one of the big parts of the IPL to get it right, so we've just got
05:40to make sure we can guesstimate it right or get it as close as possible.