Third time’s a charm for the Chennai Super Kings and their coach, Stephen Fleming. Always sporting a tranquil demeanour, Fleming was a little chirpier than normal after their final win over Mumbai Indians - and it was no surprise why. What the New Zealander couldn’t manage as a player, he did as a coach. And what a journey it has been for him, from player to coach to IPL champion.
“[It’s a] massive sense of fulfilment, it’s an amazing competition to be involved in,” Fleming told iplt20.com.
“It’s long, it’s tough, it’s hot, it has challenges for players and selection and pitches, so it is wonderful to come through after what was a close competition and play like we did today.”
Chennai’s super show against Mumbai Indians was typical of the style in which Fleming led his sides as a player - cool, calm and effective. And they proved their efficiency against a strong Mumbai outfit and a partisan home crowd.
“We did most things right, exactly how we planned,” Fleming explained. “We thought a score of 150 would be good but we were able to get a good start, a conservative start, get some momentum through the middle and one of our stars in (Suresh) Raina stood up. So it was excellent to get to 170 and we knew our bowling is pretty disciplined and we knew it was going to be tough for them.”
It was indeed going to be tough, as the Mumbai Indians found out when they fell 22 runs short of their target. Fleming admitted he was confident his team had done enough by the midway stage.
“We thought it was an excellent score, we played here the other night and it was a tough wicket, we thought probably we had 20 runs more than we needed.”
Playing against a side containing Sachin Tendulkar was going to be challenging enough but Fleming said it was the late entrance to the crease of Kieron Pollard that decisively swung the match CSK’s way.
“It’s always tough to play a side [that] he (Sachin Tendulkar) is in and he played a good role considering his hand was what it was. (Kieron) Pollard also is a massive danger [and we] probably got away with it, with him coming in only for three overs.”
Within a short space of time, the Chennai Super Kings have managed to etch their names in IPL history and have already begun to sow the seeds of creating a long-standing IPL legacy.
No comments:
Post a Comment