CHENNAI: It was a case of so near yet so far for Chennai Super Kings as they lost to Rajasthan Royals by just three runs on Wednesday. Despite injury concerns in the team, CSK were in the hunt till the last ball, but poor shot selection by the top-order and sloppy fielding did them in.
CSK head coach Stephen Fleming was visibly disappointed with his batters show, not to forget the extras that his bowlers conceded. “Yes, little things like extras, the little sloppy in the field with some catches going down and little things on the day are going to matter as the competition is getting tighter and little things like these will determine results. We lost momentum in the middle, and their (Rajasthan) spinners bowled well. Some good hitting at the end got us close,” said Fleming.
Fleming insisted that skipper MS Dhoni was nursing a knee injury, which was hindering him. “He (Dhoni) is nursing a knee injury which you can see in some of his movement, hindering him somewhat. His fitness has been professional. He comes in months before the tournament starts. He does some netting in Ranchi, but his main pre-season is a month before he comes to Chennai,” said Fleming.
The coach was also disappointed with another blow that the hosts suffered with Sisanda Magala having split his webbing after bowling only two overs in the crucial game. “For us, it’s losing another player - that’s two games in a row - and we’re already pretty thin, so we’d like it (injuries) to stop. Magala’s hand was split unfortunately, so he was unable to bowl those last two overs. And same with Deepak Chahar in the last game, so we’re operating on pretty thin resources,” said Fleming.
The New Zealander had a laugh and asked if the media had half hour if he could summarise the injury updates from the team before adding, ‘’Chahar is out for a few weeks. Magala is out for two weeks. Stokes is being monitored on a day to day basis. Sri Lankan pacer Matheesha Pathirana tested positive for Covid in New Zealand, has recovered and is available for selection now. We did not want to rush him back for this (Rajasthan) game.”
CSK will have a short break before the next game against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bengaluru on April 17. They are hoping to focus on player recovery till then. “We’ll do that (players recovery) in the next four days. But yeah, it’s not ideal yet. The captain has to then think on his feet (if bowlers keep getting injured). Moeen Ali had to come back (after Magala hurt his webbing) and he hadn’t had a great day but he got the wicket of (Jos) Buttler which was good. And you’ve got young players like Akash (Singh) who is coming in for his first game, having to bowl some key overs. It’s not how we plan but T20 very rarely goes to plan,” he said.