Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming asserted that his team are not unduly worried, adding that CSK is looking to chalk up its first win in the Nokia Champions League T20 tournament when they face Cape Cobras here Wednesday.
While rejecting the observation that the team was under pressure to perform following the stunning three—wicket defeat to the Mumbai Indians in their opening fixture Saturday, Fleming said the expectations were always high given the Super Kings’ track record.
“We are always under pressure. We were under pressure in the first game. Nothing has changed. I don’t know how many wins we need (to go through to the semifinals), whether it is two with a better run rate or it’s three, we are always under pressure.
“We put ourselves under pressure as well because we want to win, especially at home. And we want to keep winning competitions, so we don’t look to have easy games and there are no easy games.
“There have been some incredible, sensational results in the last two or three games, so that’s where the competition is going to go,” Fleming pointed out at a media conference, here Tuesday.
Looking ahead to the game against the Cobras, Fleming said the team was still to sit down to work out a combination or make any drastic changes in the light of Saturday’s loss.
“We haven’t gone back to the drawing board just because we have had one loss where one player hit 15 or 20. Up to that point, we had won about 95 per cent of the game. So we are not going to rush and change.
“That is not our style. We have got a group of players that has won three competitions. But we’re very mindful and if there is a change to be made, we will make it tomorrow after we watch the first game,” he said.
Fleming did not put too much emphasis on going into Wednesday’s match with a different game plan given the quality openers that the Cobras boast in Richard Levi and Herschelle Gibbs, especially the latter.
“We have got a couple of South African players in our squad, Albie Morkel and Faf du Plessis. We have used their resources, but you can’t get too tricky. This is our home ground where we have had a lot of success. Our success has been built on pretty good foundations.
“If you try to change and become something different, then you make mistakes. That’s not my style and I know that’s not the skipper’s (MS Dhoni) style. Herschelle Gibbs is one of the very good players of the shorter form of the game and we saw the other night, how destructive he can be. There will be subtle changes, not anything drastic,” said Fleming.
When queried about the pitch and whether it will aid spin, Fleming said the surface remained an unknown quantity.
“We can’t really get a straight answer because the curators themselves do not know how it will play. But if we are not sure, we will go with what we know and we have a pretty balanced side to cover most conditions,” he said.
Meanwhile, Cobras fast bowler Vernon Philander, while admitting that the Super Kings would be enjoying vociferous crowd support, it would not be huge factor.
“I don’t think so. In 2009 Champions League, we played Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bangalore and overcame them. We are not going to get affected by the crowd support,” he pointed out.
Philander promised that the Cobras fielding would be much better on Wednesday, unlike in their previous game when they dropped catches in the early overs, but ultimately managed to beat New South Wales Blues quite comfortably.
On his own bowling against the Blues when he took two for 22, Philander said: “I thought the wicket was pretty slow and I tried to mix up my pace and keep it pretty simple,” he said.
