IPL 2025: CSK's Season of Sighs! Fleming Laments Dropped Catches and Lost Chances
CSK’s Season of Sighs: Fleming Laments Dropped Catches and Lost Chances Despite Bolder Batting
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming didn’t mince words after his team’s fourth straight IPL loss this season, falling 18 runs short of Punjab Kings’ towering 220 on Tuesday. While relieved to see the top order finally fire, Fleming pinpointed sloppy fielding and a faltering chase as the culprits in a season he branded “frustrating” from the outset.
CSK’s batters showed grit, with openers Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra stitching a 69-run stand, followed by Conway’s 89-run partnership with Shivam Dube (42). “We batted a bit better,” Fleming noted in the post-match presser. “The top order gave us substance, which we’ve missed, but we couldn’t keep the run rate up through the middle. It left too much to do at the end.” Despite staying in the game longer than in previous outings, the chase unraveled, leaving CSK at 202/7.
The real sting, though, came in the field. CSK’s 11 dropped catches across five matches—including three against Punjab—haunted them again. “If you want to pick up 20 runs, it’s there in the dropped catches,” Fleming said, hinting at mysterious lighting woes affecting both sides. “The game was really lost in the field.”
Punjab’s Priyansh Arya stole the show with a fearless 42-ball 103, shrugging off a first-ball duck in his previous game to pummel CSK’s bowlers. “He had a day out,” Fleming conceded. “We planned to bowl straight and pressure him, but we were too wide, too sloppy. He capitalized brilliantly.” A missed caught-and-bowled chance off the first ball underscored CSK’s night of near-misses.
Shashank Singh’s 36-ball 52, steering Punjab from a shaky 83/5, earned praise too. Singh credited state T20 leagues for unearthing gems like Arya. “These competitions—under lights, with the Kookaburra ball—reveal character and mental toughness beyond just skills,” he said, namechecking Lucknow’s Digvesh Rathi as another breakout star.
For Fleming, the positives are bittersweet. CSK’s batting found rhythm, but the season’s woes—11 dropped catches, four losses—linger. As Punjab celebrated a hard-fought win, CSK’s hunt for a turnaround grows more desperate by the match.
