Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming has explained how the thought process of the team changed because of the dew factor. Yesterday night, fans witnessed an epic IPL match between CSK and Lucknow Super Giants, where LSG chased a 211-run target to win the match.
The turning point of the match was the 19th over of LSG’s innings. Despite having the options of two spin bowlers, captain Ravindra Jadeja decided to give the over to medium pacer Shivam Dube. Youngster Ayush Badoni and the well-set Evin Lewis took him to the cleaners as LSG inched closer to the target.
In a virtual post-match press conference, head coach Stephen Fleming said that the options of Moeen Ali or Ravindra Jadeja bowling in the death did not seem right because of the dew. Describing the dew as ‘Niagra Falls’, Fleming was quoted as saying as follows by PTI:
“If you’d looked earlier on, spinning options were taken out of play because it was like Niagara Falls in terms of the wetness and they (LSG) played well.”
We were one over short but they played well: Stephen Fleming
Fleming further mentioned that the team could have used one more over from either of the two spinners during the initial phase of the innings. He gave two reasons why Shivam Dube bowled the 19th over. One was the toughness to grip the ball and the second was effectiveness.
“So it was very hard to, one, grip the ball for a spinner and, two, to be effective. So early on, we were one over short but they played well,” he added.
Fleming concluded by saying that the Chennai Super Kings knew they would have squeeze someone in to bowl one over. He mentioned that the team tried to take the required run rate up so that they could get away with that one over without much damage. However, the same did not happen.
