"I think we have added some players who have made a difference already," he said.
Chennai Super Kings cricket team coach Stephen Fleming. Pic/AFP
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) registered their third successive win in the IPL-14 when they beat Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 18 runs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday.
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In a high pressure game, put in to bat, CSK scored 220-3, thanks to openers—Faf du Plessis’ unbeaten 95 in just 60 balls (9x4, 4x6) and 42-ball 64 (6x4, 4x6) from Ruturaj Gaikwad. Moeen Ali’s 12-ball 25 and skipper MS Dhoni (17 in 8 balls), who promoted himself at No.4.
However, it was not that easy to defend this mammoth total despite pacer Deepak Chahar’s (4-29) fiery bowling as KKR lost their top five wickets for just 31 in the powerplay itself.
Pat Cummins (unbeaten 66 in 34 balls, 4x4, 6x6), Andre Russell (54 in 22, 3x4, 6x6) and Dinesh Karthik (40 in 24, 4x4, 2x6) brought the game so close, but CSK had a last laugh bundling out KKR at 202 in 19.1 overs.
CSK head coach Stephen Fleming credited the success to his team’s attitude. “We thought we were a little bit thin last year to play a high-risk game, so we were a little bit conservative. Once again, we were coming out of Chennai, where a 150-160 score is very adequate. We had to swivel around and change - more attitude than anything this year. I think we have added some players who have made a difference already, but the attitude is really the number one thing, so it’s about the mind shift,” Fleming said at the post-match virtual press conference on Wednesday night.
For CSK, pacer Lungi Ngidi returned with figures of 4-0-28-3, but Shardul Thakur conceded 48 runs in his 3.1 overs. Fleming defended Thakur and said: “This game can be a little brutal. He was pretty good. He took over and bowled the death yorkers that you would see from [Dwayne] Bravo. He was able to sort of control things. The execution is hard when you have got hitters like Russell, Karthik and Cummins at the end. He did well to keep delivering. I think he was good tonight.”
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