Dhoni wasn't the only one who struggled, it was a difficult day for strokeplay: Fleming

MS Dhoni failed to hit a single four or six during his 27-ball 18 against Delhi Capitals (DC). This is Dhoni's slowest innings in which he has faced at least 25 deliveries.

However, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming reckons Dhoni was not the only one who struggled, pointing to the fact that DC also chased wown 137 in the last over with just three wickets to spare.

"Well, he (Dhoni) wasn't the only one who struggled. It was a difficult day for strokeplay," Fleming said at the virtual post-match press conference.

"When 137 (136) is almost enough, I think it was a tough wicket to score big on in terms of the big shots. So both teams struggled with that towards the end of the innings. Sometimes you set your sights too high, [want] too many, and probably we were only 10-15 runs short of having a match-winning score," he added.

The CSK head coach further adds that it is becoming difficult to assess the conditions in the three grounds in UAE and it was certainly not lack of intent from their end.

"So, the difficulty at the moment is to assess what the conditions are in all three different grounds and, batting first, getting a score that is par or just above. It was no lack of intent, it was just we had to stabilise after a couple of mistakes and then we were reasonably well-placed for 150. The other thing was their attack bowled very well in the last five overs. They were very smart, so it was tough going," the former New Zealand captain said.

CSK now have lost two back-to-back matches in IPL 2021. Fleming says he would rather have tese defeats ow rather than in next stage of the tournament. "I'd rather have two defeats now than in the two semi-finals, if I ever had a wish list. Today was good, today was scrappy and I think there were a lot of mistakes on both sides. Sometimes, when you've qualified, I know there are one or two (things) that we were trying hard for... and things do change a little bit," he said.

"We try to work very hard on keeping the intensity. We're on the back of three games in five days and a bit of travel, so there were probably clumsy mistakes from us, which was the most disappointing aspect, but in terms of the competition one of the key things is rebounding. Second on the table [with] a chance to get to the top two is still a positive position, but we need to just maintain our intensity or get the flow and rhythm that we had before these two games," Fleming added

CSK should finish in the top two if they beat Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Thursday (October 7). However, RCB too can finish with the same points as CSK, but their net-run-rate may ensure that they do not finish above them if CSK do beat PBKS and RCB win their two remaining matches.