We are running out of time, warns CSK coach Stephen Fleming
Chennai have beaten Bangalore in the home and away leg in league matches. But Fleming doesn’t think it will have much of a bearing on tomorrow’s win-or-bust contest.(Source: PTI)
Ahead of Qualifier 2 on Friday, Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming has asked his batters to pull up their socks, saying that the team is running out of time. He had a strong message for Faf du Plessis, who’s throwing away his starts.
“Faf is not taking his time (in terms of wasting deliveries) but what he’s doing is getting out at the wrong time. It’s not enabling our hitters to play their game. We are losing more wickets than we’ve lost in any IPL. So we are seeing a lot more batsmen having to play innings of substance. What we need is top four or five to get the majority of runs and that’s probably been the difference this year compared to other years. We are missing out on runs at the top.
“But we’ve got a chance to rectify that, we got a really good top-order batting and the fact they’ve under-fired somewhat means that they are due to perform. And this game will be a big game. The other thing is that we’ve also played on pitches in Chennai that have been difficult to score and so it’s been hard to find any form. The guys have worked hard to get some fluency back in their game. They can take time but we are running out of it. So hopefully, we play well enough in this game and the next,” Fleming said.
Captain MS Dhoni, too, hasn’t shone brightly as a batsman. A tally of 328 runs in 15 matches at a strike-rate of 124.71 is not quite Dhoni-like. Also, his first-ball duck against Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 1 was the turning point of the game. “We would like him to get more runs and he would like to get more runs. But that goes probably for the whole top order. Apart from Brendon McCullum, who was up in the mid-400s, everyone else is well down than where they usually should be. So we need our whole batting order to fire tomorrow. I think the bowling as a whole has done pretty well. I will try to get this message across that our batting needs to produce and Dhoni is part of that. But hopefully the top four can do well and bring him at a time, when he can unleash his power with (Dwayne) Bravo, (Ravindra) Jadeja and (Pawan) Negi. We just need to look after our resources and get a better score on the board,” said Fleming.
Chennai have beaten Bangalore in the home and away leg in league matches. But Fleming doesn’t think it will have much of a bearing on tomorrow’s win-or-bust contest. Also, he feels it’s futile to go against AB de Villiers with pre-set plans. “You can make as many plans as you like but he’s such a good player, he’s world’s best. He will conquer most of those plans. So you got to hold your nerves. You’ve to have a bit of courage and you will have to be ready to take the opportunity. You can’t give him two bites at the cherry. So you’ve to be absolutely on the mark with your areas. We want to be spot on from ball one to (Chris) Gayle as well. Virat (Kohli) will probably look to bat through. He’s a wonderful player but AB certainly is a guy who can take the game away from you.”
Wary of CSK, says De Villiers
Notwithstanding the comprehensive win against Rajasthan Royals in their IPL Eliminator, AB de Villiers says Royal Challengers Bangalore will be wary of Chennai Super Kings in Friday’s qualifier 2 as they are a tough team to beat.
“It is going to be a very difficult match. We know that CSK are a very good and tough team to beat. We would love to go to Ranchi and beat them. It would be amazing if we can then go a step further and win the trophy. Right now we have to take it step by step,” said de Villiers.
De Villiers hit a fighting 66 and shared a match-winning 113-run stand with Mandeep Singh (54 not out) as the Bangalore outfit recovered from a sluggish start to post a challenging 180 for four and eventually won by 71 runs against Rajasthan Royals here last night. But the hard-hitting South African batsman chose to give all the credit to his partner Mandeep for helping him to continue the momentum. “To be very honest I didn’t play very well today. I have to give all credit to Mandeep Singh for the way he played. It was not as fluent a knock as I wanted it to be but I guess it all comes with experience. I struggled in the first few overs but I fought it through and I was lucky to be there in the end to express myself,” de Villiers added.
Source:: Indian Express
