Our bowlers lacked accuracy: Fleming

Chennai: Losing a match as close as this at your home ground can’t be easy. Backed by a raucous crowd and playing in familiar conditions, the Chennai Super Kings were expected to get over the line after amassing 200 runs on a seemingly slow, low wicket. But the way the Punjab Kings batters came at them from the word go and finished off the job despite several setbacks along the way will give the hosts some serious food for thought.As was the case on Sunday, CSK’s new-ball attack has often been found wanting, and Akash Singh and Tushar Deshpande have leaked too many runs in the later stages as well. Head coach Stephen Fleming felt the bowlers didn’t hit the right spots and that the intensity was lacking. “The Punjab Kings have a lot of big hitters, so taking wickets and holding our nerve was important. We lacked accuracy to keep putting them under pressure. It was always going to be a tough ask on a wicket that was getting better with a little bit of dew,” he said at the post-match press conference.Skipper MS Dhoni too was not entirely happy with the bowling performance. “You need to be aware of what you need to bowl and be clear because the batters will be going for it. I think 200 was par but we bowled two bad overs. Pathirana bowled well but other than that, we need to see if the plans were wrong or the execution was bad,” he said at the post-match presentation.The way CSK batted during the death overs also made many wonder whether they were being a tad conservative, with the usually aggressive Ravindra Jadeja not going for sixes and ending up with a 10-ball 12. “We probably could have got a few more runs in the last four overs. We were not as productive then as we would have liked,” Fleming said. Dhoni echoed the coach’s view, saying they “could have got 10 more runs” towards the end of the innings.With five wins from nine games, CSK now have 10 points and are placed fourth in a competition where the fight to make it to the playoffs is getting hotter with each passing day. Heading towards the business end, they will need to go back to the drawing board and iron out the flaws for the remaining five league games, three of which they will play in Chennai.