IPL 2020 | MS was comfortable with extra bowler as we felt pitch might slow down, reveals Stephen Fleming

10/14/2020

Speaking about bringing Piyush Chawla in for N Jagadeeshan, Stephen Fleming has stated that Dhoni was comfortable with the idea as they collectively thought the wicket would slow down. The CSK coach has also added that they didn’t want to muddle the batting order anymore, thus sent Curran up.

With two wins from seven games till the half-way mark of the stage, Chennai Super Kings found themselves in a very dire situation and recovering from which required a high level of mental strength and planning. Batting first for the first time this edition, they capitalised on a positive start and even though they lacked a batsman up front, it didn’t prove too costly. Fleming attributed the move to their assessment of the pitch that it might slow down.

"Our bowling attack is fluid. It's just a case of taking batter out and have a bowler. MS was comfortable with extra bowler as we felt it (pitch) might slow down. As it turned out, Chawla only bowled one over but it was a good over. It was positive rather than having an extra batter," Fleming said in the post-match press conference.

Chennai took the bold move of promoting Sam Curran to open the innings which paid off heavily as the Surrey man’s 21-ball had a positive ripple effect on the entire squad. CSK went on to post a par-total and the middle-over strangulation by spinners landed them the ultimate coup. Fleming believed that it was a move to free up the side from unnecessary tweaks that muddles their batting order.

"We had Sam padded up for every innings. We thought that rather than getting clogged up, we should be certain about Sam and put him on the front. Put the onus on the batting group instead of shuffling it. We wanted to do something different because our losses were becoming too familiar," the CSK skipper added.

Dwayne Bravo might not have had an excellent game, but his usefulness was evident right from the word go. The Caribbean superstar sent Vijay Shankar and then Shahbaz Nadeem back to the hut but more importantly, kept his cool under pressure in the death to ensure an easy win for the side. Fleming was all praise for the all-rounder.

"His contribution is Very high. With Bravo, we have a lot of options but we just can't capitalize on it at the moment. In terms of his contribution so far, he succeeded in what we want. He is very competitive, he has risen to every challenge. He has given a glimpse of what he can give to us in future," said Fleming.

Chennai Super Kings will take on Delhi Capitals on Saturday in a bid to further boost their campaign for a play-offs spot.