Chennai coach Fleming concerned with recent form

Sudhir Gupta 09:35 22/05/2014
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  • Sloppy: Ravichandran Ashwin was guilty of dropping Robin Uthappa and the Kolkata opener made Chennai pay a heavy price with a match-winning 67 off 39 balls.

    Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming is worried that his team is slipping away from being a dominant force in the Indian Premier League.

    Fleming’s concerns lie in the back-to-back losses Chennai have suffered against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders.

    What rankles the former New Zealand captain is the poor fielding which has resulted in catches of top batsmen being spilled at an alarming rate.

    Robin Uthappa was let off twice by Ravichandran Ashwin and Suresh Raina in the slips and the Kolkata opener made full use of the reprieve scoring 67 off 39 balls to lead his team to a eight-wicket win.

    "We have made a habit of dropping catches off key players, and Uthappa was one," said Fleming. "He made us pay. He took the game away from us in very quick time.”

    Fleming admitted that his team needed to work on their fielding but was also aware that they don’t have the time to focus on it at this stage.

    “This is a really good fielding team but, look, it can happen,” he said. “We have got some good fielders and we have some fielders who need to work hard.

    “Sometimes the ball follows people and it adds to your confidence. Sometimes it just doesn’t. Slip catches can go down because they are uncommon in T20s but I see the boys training with Steve (Rixon) on their slip fielding.

    “It’s not like we don’t work on it. It’s just that the players get unconditioned to expect them. It would’ve been nice if those catches were taken. That’s an area we need to work on but we just don’t have the time.”

    Chennai are assured of a playoff spot with 16 points from 12 matches but Fleming wants an improved display in the next game against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Ranchi on Thursday night. 

    “The positive is that we have qualified for the playoffs. We’re still second and we’re still hunting for the first and second spot with two games to go. If you had given us that scenario at the start of the tournament we would have taken it hands down,” he remarked.

    “But I’m more concerned about our attitude today. Once things started going our way we were a bit soft. We pride ourselves in that when things don’t go our way we usually turn it our way, but that attitude was missing against Kolkata, which is very unlike CSK."

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