Pune Warriors batsman Robin Uthappa blamed his team’s 25-run defeat against Chennai Super Kings on the early loss of wickets and some superb fielding by the rival side.
“CSK fielded out of their skin and credit must be given to them. When we batted, we lost two wickets -- Pandey and myself in quick succession. That pushed us back pretty badly. We needed to build a partnership,” rued the burly Karnataka batsman.
“Chennai Super Kings played exceedingly well and the 20-25 runs in the end overs was crucial for us. We batted badly but bowled and fielded well,” he said.
Uthappa defended Yuvraj Singh’s decision to field first.
“Taking into consideration that we won matches chasing and coming from back-to-back defeats, we wanted to stay in that zone. That was the reason why we put them in,” he reasoned.
“Unfortunately, we lost the game today but nothing is lost and we will be winning the next matches.”
Uthappa admitted that there is room for improvement in all three departments of the game.
“We want to up our game in all three departments. Our batsmen have their task cut out. We still have nine matches to go. We will definitely peak at the right time,” the dashing batsman said.
Questioned whether humidity was a factor, “New stadium does not make us feel that way. There is a lot more breeze blowing.”
Uthappa didn’t rule out the fatigue factor for senior Indian players as they are coming back from World Cup. He termed the Chepauk pitch as “difficult for batting.”
Brilliant fielding helped our bowlers: Fleming
Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming said his team’s brilliant fielding performance made all the difference and the side would look to replicate the effort in the coming IPL matches as well.
“We would look to replicate this standard of fielding in our coming matches. Today, we were desperate to win. This kind of fielding helps the bowler to be a bit more confident and gives the skipper much more confidence to dictate the game.
“We need to keep improving in that area. We were embarrassed with our fielding in the last game and we were desperate to make the difference,” Fleming said at the post-match press conference.
Fleming admitted that his team was 15 runs short of the par-score.
“We knew it was a below par score. Since our best players were struggling on that track, we felt it would be a tough score to attain.”
The former New Zealand captain said his boys were successful in increasing the pressure as the match progressed.
“We knew we had to bowl and field well. We increased the pressure on the rival batsmen as the match progressed. When they were scoring at six runs an over, we knew we had a good chance to win the match.”
Jesse Ryder’s wicket was the key as if the Kiwi batsman would have got a few big hits, it would have set the platform for Yuvraj to consolidate.
“If Jesse Ryder got going that would have created a platform for Yuvraj. Then it would have been difficult. Our idea was to take early wickets and the fielders complemented the bowlers well.”
Fleming termed R Ashwin as a transformed bowler after his stint with India’s World Cup winning team.
“He has always been a match-winner for us. He is always a confident bowler and transforms himself well as he takes wickets. He is working hard on improving his strengths.
“The last four months in international cricket have really made him more matured. Ashwin is an asset. His variations always help him like the manner in which he dismissed Jesse Ryder with his arm ball today.”
Fleming defended Murali Vijay who has often failed to convert his good starts during the tournament.
“Vijay is in a situation where he is providing us the platform to push the pace. He understands the situation pretty well. Vijay is one of our key players. He needs to get big score and we have faith in him that he will get a big score.”
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