Stephen Fleming has stated that spinners didn't bowl because of the dew and that one over cost them the match as well.
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The fate of the game between Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Chennai Super Kings changed in the 19th over when Shivam Dube conceded 25 runs and LSG won by six wickets in IPL 2022. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming has stated that spinners didn’t bowl because of the dew and that one over cost them the match as well. Notably, in the last 2 overs, CSK needed 34 runs.
While comparing the dew to the “Niagara Falls”, Fleming stated that the spinners would have struggled to grip the ball. He further added, “If you’d looked earlier on, spinning options were taken out of play. Because it was like Niagara Falls in terms of the wetness and they [LSG] played well. So it was very hard to, one, grip the ball for a spinner and, two, to be effective. So early on, we were one over short but they played well. We always knew we had to pick up an over somewhere – we were hoping to be able to create enough of a run-rate towards the end that we could squeeze someone in.”
“Whether that was another spinner, the decision was made in the middle to use Dube, and they counted it well. So we always knew that one over was going to be pivotal and I think they did as well, but they played it very well,” he said at the post-match press conference.
And, when Shivam Dube came to bowl in the penultimate over, Ayush Badoni started the over with a six and Evin Lewis (55* off 23) finished with two boundaries and another six as well. Choudhary (0 for 39), bowling the final over, had 9 runs to defend, which Badoni (19* off 9) managed to get with three balls to spare.
After setting a target of 211, CSK failed to defend that. But Stephen Fleming praised youngsters Tushar Deshpande and Choudhary, the two new-ball bowlers, who did well.
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“We’ve got some young guys – playing Mukesh for the first time, Deshpande has played a little bit before. But I thought it was really honest. It’s really tough out there – you can’t appreciate how wet that ball is and the outfield is. So it’s very difficult to get any aggressive play, I think we were bowling defensively from about 10 overs onwards. I thought they hung in really well, started really well in tough conditions,” Fleming again shared.
“Adam Milne has had some treatment, he’s hopefully not too far away. Chris Jordan, also, hopefully not too far away, and of course Deepak Chahar. So we are a bit of resource down with our fast bowling, but at some stage, all teams will find they are a little bit skinny in some areas,” the CSK head coach again added.
Meanwhile, the entire CSK batting lineup did well where Robin Uthappa scored 50 off 27 before Shivam Dube (49 off 30) and MS Dhoni (16* off 6) delivered the late flourish.
“We thought it was about par, and that’s the nature of the conditions at the moment – they very much favour the team batting second. We did well to get to 210, but we were always realistic that it was going to get harder as the night went on. So we worked very hard to stay in the game, to be honest. Defensively, I thought we were great. After about 10 overs, we just knuckled down and I thought we were fantastic to stay in the game. But it’s pretty hard fielding second at the moment,” Stephen Fleming concluded.
CSK will next take on Punjab Kings (PBKS) on the same ground on Sunday.
