CSK team stood up to the expectations of the game, admits Stephen Fleming
Stephen Fleming has voiced his pride in his playersâ ability to rise to expectations despite facing adversities such as being relocated to Pune midway through the season. CSK made a striking comeback as they were able to secure their third IPL crown after a fierce finale with SRH yesterday.
With their eight-wicket win in the final yesterday, CSK became the second team after Mumbai Indians to win three IPL titles in the 11-year existence of the IPL. After the auction, not too many fans and pundits gave the team from Chennai a chance of winning the cup due to the average age of the side. After starting the season well, the team were forced to relocate their home base to Pune due to the ongoing Cauvery water issue.
âI think we dealt with a lot of adversity really calmly and that comes with leadership. I will admit moving from Chennai had quite an impact, given when we sat at the auction table picking a team to play in Chennai conditions. We had to scramble through the year to try and find a combination. We made more changes to the team that we usually would. We suddenly became a seaming- based side with a little bit of spin,â Fleming said, reported Wisden India.Â
âIt is quite a bit of turn around when you place your strategy to be a slow team with good players of spin. I am really proud how we adapted to that. I am proud how different individuals stood up at key times, think we've talked about that through the tournament.â
The final itself was filled with twists and turns as some late fireworks from Hyderabad saw them post, what appeared to be, a competitive score of 178 in their allotted 20 overs. And the match appeared to be headed into the hands of Hyderabad, who had restricted Chennai to just 20/1 in five overs. However, Watson became the man of the hour by scoring an unbeaten 117 runs from 57 balls having scored none of his first 10 balls.Â
âYeah, it was a good struggle, wasn't it? The opening spell was outstanding from SRH. He(Watson) might have been none of ten balls. It was a real battle in the first four or five overs. It was a great final in that sense,â Fleming added.
âI thought it was just below par score. They could have got to 190-200 too, but the two death overs were really momentum- shifters for us. We're really happy, it's been an area that's been expensive for us and to have (lungi) Ngidi and Shardul(Thakur) bowl two good overs for some nines was a great result. Anything under 180, we were happy with it.â
