After his side were outplayed by Rajasthan Royals in their IPL cricket match here today, Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming said that his team was 20 runs short while batting.
Fleming said that the total of 156 his team scored was not good enough against a confident team like Rajasthan Royals. He also said that RR outplayed CSK in all departments of the game and also expressed concern about his team's performance in fielding.
"Today's match was pretty one sided. We were outplayed by RR in every department. We need to improve a lot in fielding department, as we have not concentrated much on it. I can say that we were around 20 run short due to some hiccups in the beginning. We are surely pretty disappointed," Fleming said after his side lost by eight wickets.
Even as the mercury hovered at 43 degrees Celsius when the CSK came out to bat, Fleming said that heat conditions were not responsible for their defeat, as they have played in such conditions earlier.
"We have played in such conditions in Mumbai and Chennai, so heat doesn't have to do anything. We did what we can do, but, it's just the nature of IPL cricket where players sometimes may not perform well due to the mental and physical strain they take," said the former New Zealand skipper at the post-match press conference.
On his side's bowling performance, Fleming said, "Rajasthan created pressure on us when they were bowling. Unfortunately, we could not do the same when we came to bowl."
"RR is the clear leader at the moment. It is always tough to beat them when they are full of confidence. In addition, they were playing in their home ground, which is already known to them," he added.
