Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming was scathing while assessing the fielding effort from his side and hopeful following an improved batting display against Punjab Kings on Tuesday night as they slumped to their fourth defeat on the trot in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. The Super Kings were tilting at windmills in the field, fluffing up match-defining opportunities. CSK’s tragic story of dropped chances continued, and two of those allowed Priyansh Arya to break the shackles and wallop to a 39-ball century.
Khaleel Ahmed was guilty of being caught and bowled in the very first over on a score of six, while Mukesh Choudhary floored it at long-off in the 12th off Ravichandran Ashwin when Arya was batting with belligerence on 73.
The story of missed chances just didn’t end there for CSK. The five-time champions paid through the nose after Shashank Singh, who was going about the business with his usual explosive ways, earned a second lifeline when Ravindra dropped a sitter off Noor Ahmad at deep midwicket in the 17th over.
“The game was really lost in the field. I thought we were sloppy in the field and that we just lacked accuracy under pressure at certain times. We were put under pressure by a fine innings [from Arya], but we’ve got to be better than that in terms of shutting it down. So that’s where the game got away from us,” Fleming assessed in the post-match press conference.
“We’re 18 runs short in a big run chase, so we can look at three sixes here and there. It’s been a frustrating season so far. The catching has been poor, but it was poor from both sides tonight. Whether it was something in the light, I’m not sure, but certainly for us, that was an area of concern,” he added.
For the first time in CSK’s five games, their opening pair managed to see off the powerplay in pursuit of Punjab’s daunting 220-run target. The New Zealand southpaws Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra were steamrolling past Punjab’s bowling unit and raised 61 in 6.3 overs.
After a successful powerplay, Chennai tottered in the middle overs after losing Rachin (36) and skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad (1) cheaply. As the asking rate spiralled to 17 in the last four overs, Conway was swapped for Ravindra Jadeja.
MS Dhoni hammered a quick-fire 27 from 12 deliveries, including three towering maximums, but holed it to Yuzvendra Chahal on the first ball of the final over as CSK fell 18 runs short of victory.
“The positives are we batted a bit better. We’ve had some substance from the top order, which was a bit lacking, so we were able to then construct the chase. We just weren’t able to keep the run rate at a good level through the middle, and it was just too much towards the end. But we’ve been in the game for a lot longer, which is a positive aspect,” he said.
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