Head coach Stephen Fleming assessed a disappointing season for Chennai Super Kings, saying the failure to close out critical moments and games eventually came back to haunt the defending champions in IPL 2022.
Fleming cited the inability of his team to finish off a number of games as a major reason behind their tournament failure. The New Zealander felt while last year’s inspirational comeback to own the coveted title was a “catastrophic success”, CSK needed to play a more consistent brand of cricket to replicate their feat.
“There was mixed success. We sort of stuttered our way through. We had a number of games that were close, but we were not good enough to get across the line,”
PTI quoted Fleming after CSK ended their campaign with a defeat against Rajasthan Royals on May 20.
Winning only four of their 14 encounters and losing ten, CSK suffered their second-ever league stage exit from the IPL after a disastrous 2020 season in UAE where their ageing squad failed to come up with solid performances after a pandemic break.
For this year as well, CSK intended to keep some of the experienced core around, but the mega auction made that quite difficult for the side, especially on the bowling front. With their batters under pressure to deliver the goods consistently, CSK were always walking a thin rope and ultimately collapsed against a varied set of opposition.
There has been an influx of fresh faces in the side, too, and Fleming said it will take those players some time to establish themselves in the set-up and flourish in either department.
“We suffered from catastrophic success so just trying to play the same way, continue from our last four years, which were very successful, is a real challenge. Dropping back and understanding what the new players can do, it can take a little bit of time,”
he added.
A team known for regularity and clarity, CSK also dealt with a surprising mid-season captaincy shuffle after their originally appointed skipper Ravindra Jadeja handed the leadership reigns back to Dhoni after just eight matches.
