Published: Apr 21, 2025, 11:04 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 21, 2025, 11:04 PM (IST)
Head coach Stephen Fleming said Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are “realistic” about their position in this year’s Indian Premier League, but asserted that the five-time champions will leave no stone unturned to find players for the next year.
An out-of-sorts CSK suffered their sixth loss in 8 matches after Mumbai Indians (MI) handed them a 9-wicket defeat on Sunday to keep the MS Dhoni-led side confined to the bottom of the points table.
CSK fought their way to a decent total of 176/5 in 20 overs, but it was not enough on a batting-friendly surface on which Rohit Sharma (76 not out) and Suryakumar Yadav (68 not out) put the visiting bowlers to the sword.
“It is hard when you are playing below par to get enthusiastic about staying in the competition, but that is what we must do,” Fleming told the media after the match.
“Nothing will be wasted during this tournament, we will look back at other tournaments that have not gone our way and some of the work we have done at the back end of the tournaments that set us up for wins the following year. We’re realistic about the position that we’re in, but there will be no stone unturned looking for players for next year, combinations for next year and we’ll see it as an opportunity,” Fleming added.
MI batters showed the way by scoring 177 for one in 15.4 overs at a brisk rate, which was in complete contrast to CSK’s conservative approach for a large part of their innings. Fleming attributed it to “lack in confidence”.
“We’re not trying to play a conservative brand of cricket, we’re just lacking a little bit of confidence and we’re just changing personnel through one reason or another,” Fleming said.
