The coach of the Chennai Super Kings, Stephen Fleming has explained why Kedar Jadhav has been sent ahead of Ravindra Jadeja in the match against Kolkata Knight Riders. Kolkata Knight Riders have put up a total of 167 onboard after deciding to bat first in the match. They have got a brilliant start in the match as their opener Rahul Tripathi has played a flamboyant knock of 81. However, no other batsman of Kolkata Knight Riders has been able to complement him well. Chennai Super Kings’ bowlers have made a good comeback in the end and they have gone to the dressing room with the momentum in their favour.
The Story Of The Game-
After coming to bat in the second innings, Chennai Super Kings have done a superb job in the first half. They have lost only one wicket in the first ten overs. The partnership between Shane Watson and Ambati Rayudu has been looking quite good. However, Ambati Rayudu has gone back to the pavilion after playing a reckless shot. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has come at number four after all the criticisms he has faced during this season. The captain of Kolkata Knight Riders, Dinesh Karthik has held back Sunil Narine till 12th over of the match.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni has not been able to hit a single boundary against Sunil Narine in Indian Premier League. The record of Sunil Narine against Shane Watson has also been quite impressive. Narine has taken the important wicket of Shane Watson and after that, the pressure has started to increase for Chennai Super Kings. Mahendra Singh Dhoni usually loves to take the game to the deep. However, he has tried to slog in the over of Varun Chakravarthy after hitting a four in the previous ball. This is not like a typical approach of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and he has gone to the pavilion as the ball hit straight to the wicket.
What Stephen Fleming Said?
The management of Chennai Super Kings has sent Kedar Jadhav ahead of Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo. Kedar Jadhav has played three dot balls in that over of Varun Chakravarthy. The pressure has piled up on Sam Curran and his wicket has been taken by Andre Russell. The over of Andre Russell has completely changed the course of the match as he has conceded only three runs in that over. After that, it has become quite an impossible task for Chennai Super Kings and they have failed to chase the score successfully.
The fans have questioned the decision of sending Kedar Jadhav at that point of time. According to Stephen Fleming, Kedar Jadhav has been a lower middle-order batsman for India. The management has thought that Kedar Jadhav will be able to take on the spinners well. However, things have not gone in that way.
“At the time, we thought that Kedar could play the spinner well and dominate. We hoped Jadeja (and Bravo) were there to come and finish if needed. But in the end, there was too much work to do and we fell short. We have got so much batting resources. Kedar is a late middle to the late batter for India. We could have gone a whole lot of different ways. Today Kedar had some balls but that did not work out. You always put players in different areas and that’s just when you have so much batting talent to choose from. It is one of the things we look at, but it is all in hindsight.”
Stephen Fleming has also told that one of the openers should have stayed there till the end. That is to finish off the game that was in their hands. It could have been an easy run chase for Chennai Super Kings. However, they have made life difficult for themselves with poor game planning.
