CSK are almost out of IPL 2025 playoff contention, as they crashed to their seventh defeat of the season on Saturday. It was also their second-straight loss as SRH won by five wickets.
It was also CSK’s fourth consecutive loss at the Chepauk, and it is only the second such instance after they lost the last two fixtures of the 2008 season, and the first two in 2010. This was also SRH’s first win vs CSK at Chepauk in six attempts.
Speaking after the defeat vs SRH, CSK head coach Stephen Fleming opened up on his side’s struggles and blamed the mega auction strategy last year.
“It is hard to say we got it completely right with the performances that we have had,” he said.
“So we have been looking over that in detail just around our style of play. Also looking at how the game is evolving.
“And it is not easy. And that is why we are proud of our record today. We have been able to be consistent for so long and it doesn’t take much for it to go another way. Other teams have got better and that is the point of the auction. But we just haven’t been able to get it right.”
CSK have failed to find any consistent batter this season, and Ruturaj Gaikwad’s campaign-ending injury has made it worse. Fleming said, “So you take responsibility from the top down and then you just ask a little more of the players.”
“But yeah, that has to be an area where we need to reflect and say it wasn’t as good as what it could have been or it hasn’t worked out how we wanted.”
‘It is also not perfect science’: Stephen Fleming
Opening up on their auction failure, he said, “It is also not perfect science. The auction is a very fluid beast. It’s like buying [for] 25 hours and see it come away at the end of it mentally and sometimes physically exhausted. And to be fair, I still think we have got a good squad. We are not far away.”
“A couple of key injuries, just a bit of a lack of form. And we have just struggled really to nail a gameplan. We’ve chopped and changed too much. I think it was trying to look for something that perhaps we felt wasn’t there. So yeah, there is a lot of responsibility and soul-searching and it certainly starts with me at the top, 100%,” he added.
Hoping for a shock resurgence, CSK face PBKS in their upcoming fixture in Chennai on Wednesday.