Chennai Super Kings who were at the second last position in the 2020th edition is back at the top in this year’s IPL. Head coach Stephen Fleming had said that their attitude towards how they play is the difference this season.
CSK failed to make it to playoffs for the first time in IPL history last season and now they have recorded their fifth consecutive win this year on Wednesday with a seven-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad.
“It was tough (last season) in the UAE. We had a pretty bad run. A lot of things went against us, which we didn’t make too much of at the time. We got a pretty big knock at the start of the tournament for a number of reasons,” Fleming said in the post-match press conference.
“But (during) the last part of the tournament we were really comfortable. We made some changes around our attitude towards what we were doing, and then we were really sure (of) what style we wanted to play going into this year’s IPL,” he further said.
Fleming also said that CSK is lucky to have all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja in his top form. Jadeja was the star in CSK’s match against the Virat Kohli’s men. He scored 67 runs off just 28 deliveries.
“Without doubt, (Jadeja is) close to the peak of his powers. That last game (against RCB), I don’t think you can ask for much more. He’s still working very hard. Our doubts were around his lack of cricket coming into the tournament, so we had to work really hard to get him up to speed. He did that by hitting a lot of balls and training very hard and he got up to speed really quickly,” said Fleming.
“We think he’s one of the most versatile players in the world, in T20 in particular, but in other formats too. We’re lucky to have him right now in his prime and he forms the core of the middle-order and allows a lot of options within the team with his skill set,” Fleming added.
