Head coach Stephen Fleming indicated there is a sense of lost belief inside the change room for defending champions Chennai Super Kings after their fourth straight loss in the Indian Premier League 2022. The New Zealander said the nature of defeats faced in the tournament so far have led to a dip in confidence within the CSK ranks.
CSK went down by eight wickets after making an insignificant score in their match on April 9 against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. This preceded two losses by a margin of six wickets and one by 54 runs.
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The four-time champions are playing anything but like a unit known for fighting through the odds and overcoming them with their own brand of cricket.
“We haven’t had any evidence that sort of helps the belief. We are not winning any games. Not being close to winning any games, you get a bit of self-doubt, and the players get a little bit niggly.
So we just got to work through that pretty quickly and try to find some rhythm and get back in the tournament.”
Fleming told the press, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
The coach accepted CSK were once again “outplayed” by their opposition and need to come up with improved performances in all three departments of the game.
The former New Zealand skipper said the Super Kings are just not getting themselves to positions where they can put the opposition under more pressure and get them to make more mistakes.
CSK’s brand of cricket – batting deep till No.8 and 9 and using multiple bowling options to avoid as many negative match-ups as they can – has gone for a toss, with their batting struggling and not being able to provide their weaker suit significant scores on the board.
CSK have crossed the 160-run mark only once in their four matches and have gone at well over eight runs an over with the ball in the tournament so far.
While admitting to a loss of belief, Fleming said he doesn’t think it would take much more than two or three collective performances to turn things around for the season.
The Chennai franchise next play on April 12 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
