Chennai Super Kings faced a 44-run defeat to Delhi Capitals in their third match of the tournament, facing their second successive loss.
Chennai Super Kings faced a tough loss in their third match of IPL 2020 campaign against the Delhi Capitals. The side's batting woes continued as it failed to chase the 176-run target, as the DC restricted them to 131/5 in 20 overs.
CSK coach Stephen Fleming insisted that there needs to be a "bigger contribution" from the batsmen at the top order for the side. Shane Watson and Murali Vijay have failed to step up for the side so far.
"We just need to be a little bit clear with what we’re doing," Fleming said in the post-match press conference.
"And what perhaps we’re missing is a bigger contribution at the top so yeah there’s a lot of question marks and a lot of soul searching, in particular from the coaching point of view and the strategy point of view but we’re trying to find combinations where we get the best players at the right times and to keep shunting the order all over the place is not really our style but we’ve had a go at it and we’ll review how it’s gone.”
Spin bowling has been a stength of CSK over the past many years but their spinners have failed to shine in the 2020 edition. With Harbhajan Singh missing and Imran Tahir injured, Piyush Chawla and Ravindra Jadeja are the two frontline spinners for the side.
"Yeah, it's an area of concern, because it's been such a strength for CSK, and you've got to think that the style of play that we've developed over the last 12 years is heavily based on spin," said Fleming.
"So what we're trying to do is find, I guess, a different personality. Spin still plays a part, and what we've struggled to do so far [is] we've played on three different grounds, so each game has been different conditions. We're struggling to adjust to find the pace and the style to bowl through the middle, and that, in the last two games in particular, has been an area where we haven't done so well. So going from a strength to an area of concern; we need to rectify that."
Fleming further insisted that CSK needs to find the right combination and are "struggling" to find momentum.
"All bets are on the table at the moment as we try to find a way that we are comfortable with. We are looking forward to playing a number of games here (in Dubai), so we were really interested in how this pitch played, and get conditions right so we can get the right combination," said Fleming.
"At the moment we're really searching, both as players and as management, to get the combination right. We're too batter-heavy if we play the extra batter and too bowler-heavy if we play the extra bowler. We're struggling a little bit to find our momentum but that will come with a bit of time off and experience from these three games."
