Stephen Fleming defends Dwayne Bravo despite death-overs mess-up

Harshal Patel’s fiery cameo followed by a disciplined bowling display helped Delhi Daredevils’ spinners overpower Chennai Super Kings by 34 runs at the Feroz Shah Kotla and in the process, they also dented CSK’s hopes of ending as the table toppers. While CSK bowlers strangulated the opposition from the outset and didn’t allow them room to score freely, towards the end, Harshal Patel and Vijay Shankar hit their way to guide the hosts to a comfortable score of 162 for five on a slow wicket. 

In the second innings, CSK batsmen struggled to get going in the middle overs as spinners Sandeep Lamichhane and Amit Mishra spun a web around the visitors which eventually culminated with the team ending with 128 for six in 20 overs. And Fleming felt the batting failure was the reason behind the team’s loss.

"Most teams have problems in the death overs. Bravo helped us in the last game by restricting the opposition to 180 when it was set to reach 200. It is just nature of the game. He has had good days in the tournament and today was not so good. Overall, the bowling effort was pretty good," Fleming was quoted as saying by CricketNext.

"I think we lost the game with the bat. We were not able to generate partnerships of substance. It brought the slowness of wicket into play. It was hard to generate any momentum though we did have the intent. I thought the wicket would speed up like it tends to do here but they mixed things up nicely."

Needing 58 runs off the final four overs, Harshal and Trent Boult, who ended with a figure of 2 for 20, delivered two brilliant overs to take the game away from Chennai. There was no MS Dhoni special either as he was dismissed after a struggling 23-ball 17. Ravindra Jadeja, however, played a couple of delightful shots but caused no threat to the Delhi bowlers as Chennai registered their fifth loss of the season. 

On being asked what went wrong in the chase, the former New Zealand captain said, "Raina got out after the break. If you pushed on from there, the game would have been a lot different. They took their catches and applied pressure. It was a close game but just lost too many wickets at key times."

A loss at Kotla would have guaranteed them a place in the top two of the table and the team will have to win the last game of the season - against Kings XI Punjab - in order to avoid taking the hard way for a place in the final.