Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming has confirmed that they will be missing their pacers, Lungi Ngidi and Jason Behrendorff for the next game against Punjab Kings. CSK suffered a seven-wicket loss against Delhi Capitals in their opening game of the season on Saturday. Fleming came in support of the batsmen for guiding to a total of 188 despite losing the openers early in the game.
During the post-match press conference, Stephen Fleming said, “Ngidi won’t be available. He won’t be arriving for the next game. So losing Josh Hazlewood, which was the plan to have him available for these games is a blow simply as an option up front. Ngidi will be arriving soon. Behrendorff would be following that. [Bowling] it’s an area that we are probably short on. But we still look at the Indian bowlers and we have international bowler Sam Curran.”
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Suresh Raina (54) smashed a sensational fifty in his comeback game before Sam Curran’s (34) taking bowlers in the death overs powered CSK to 188/7 in their 20 overs.
Describing the same, Fleming said, “It wasn’t bad when you lose wickets a little bit early and still manages to get to 188, that’s pretty good going. So, the intent with the bat was pretty good. The conditions changed, dew and a little bit of rain made things difficult in the second innings. They played really well but 190 on this ground is still reasonably competitive we just needed to bowl better.”
He further added, “We put Moeen Ali up as an aggressor and also used Suresh’s aggressive role to get to play some cricket and find some form. But after playing 2-3 shots, he really got going. It’s a really positive sign for us. I liked the way we turned it on after losing wickets when the wicket was tacky. We just weren’t able to create chances with the ball, which is really disappointing.”
On playing the first five matches at the same venue due to the Covid-19, Fleming opined that it’ll help them to understand the conditions better at a particular venue.
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Describing the same, the CSK coach said, “We will learn a lot from being here for another 4 games. But don’t underestimate how much it takes to change the philosophy of the team. We saw Mumbai struggle to a degree in Chennai the other night. So, it’s one of the quirks of this competition in this Covid-19 age and we just have to find a way.”
