Chennai Super Kings may have registered a dominant victory over the Kings XI Punjab on Sunday, but the side's coach Stephen Fleming has insisted that they are still "nowhere near where we want to be."
The CSK chased down the 179-run target with 14 balls to spare, thanks to an unbeaten opening stand from Shane Watson (83*) and Faf du Plessis (87*).
In the post-match press conference, Fleming said that individual performances helped them with the bat. "Performances like that cover a lot of things. We are nowhere near where we want to be but individual performances with the bat can really help," said the CSK coach.
The CSK management persisted with Shane Watson despite the opener bagging low scores in the first four games of the tournament. Fleming said that it is essential to provide players with "selection security."
"Important for individuals to not get too defensive. You can control your attitude and we provide the selection security for the guys, ask them to be as confident and positive as they can," said Fleming.
"Shane had been solid in the practice games, so it was a matter of time. If he gets on a roll, it will be very important for us.
"If we see an area we're not happy with, we'll look into it but if the players are doing the right things, we'll back them for as long as possible and get the cycle going."
Fleming also heaped praise on CSK's death over bowling.
"We had moments with the ball, we lacked a bit pf penetration, but in hindsight, we were none down and it was hard to get anything going on this wicket. But we kept our structure really well, our fielding was steady at best, I was just animated around the little things we need to do," said the CSK coach.
"We still have some work to do there, the key moment for me was overs 17-20, we conceded around 40 runs, it could have been more than that. Other games have been going for a bigger number but we were able to keep them to 40 so that was pleasing."
