We were not just good enough today, Fleming says

Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming said on Sunday that the spongy nature of the Wankhede wicket made hitting the ball a bit difficult.

“There was a lot of sideways movement and lot of spin. The nature of the bounce was a bit different from any other pitch. But that’s no excuse for being bowled out for 79.

“It’s a pretty long tournament to maintain your standards. We need to win at Mumbai at some stage. We did not come close to it today.”

He also said that winning seven matches in a row was a pretty good effort and perhaps a loss was round the corner.

“Striving to get to 8-10 (match wins) was what we aimed for. The nature of the competition is such that it has not been done before.

“There is a reason for that; getting up all the time and performing well and being consistent is tough work. Today, we were not just good enough to do that.”

Fleming was happy at restricting Mumbai Indians to 139. “It was a pretty good effort. It was more than a gettable target with our batting line-up. But we had a bad day in batting.

“If the players needed a wake-up call then it certainly was a wake-up call. We had one of those days and it was the first day in the tournament which we would like to forget. I guess the positive is that it happened now. We have four more games left to right the ship.”

Johnson’s hopes dashed

Mitchell Johnson thought Michael Hussey’s good run in the Pepsi-IPL VI would come to an end against Mumbai Indians.

“I told Ricky Ponitng before the match that Hussey would run out of luck at some stage. Obviously it has not. Pollard has taken some unbelievable catches and to see him drop three at the same position was something bizarre.

“I have never seen this before and it would probably never happen again,’’ said Johnson who dismissed three batsmen and won the man of the match award.