NEW DELHI: Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming admitted that the team hasn’t been successful in the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, but acknowledged that such outcomes are part of the process. Taking responsibility for CSK’s poor season, Fleming urged the players to raise their performance levels. A four-wicket haul by Harshal Patel and composed knocks from Ishan Kishan and Kamindu Mendis helped Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) secure a five-wicket victory over CSK.
“Other teams have got better, and that’s the point of the auction. But we just haven’t been able to get it right. So you take responsibility from the top down, and then you just ask a little bit more of the players,” Fleming said at the post-match press conference.
He pointed to a mix of injuries, lack of form, and an unsettled approach as key reasons behind the team’s struggles. Fleming also admitted that CSK might have been chasing solutions that didn’t exist.
“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. A couple of key injuries, just a bit of a lack of form. And we’ve just struggled really to nail a game plan, chopped and changed too much. But I think it was trying to look for something that perhaps we felt wasn’t there,” he explained.
Reflecting on CSK’s latest defeat, Fleming said the game mirrored their season as a whole. He was encouraged by the intent shown by the batters but noted that the team had played too tensely, which hampered their ability to put pressure on opponents.
“The game sort of sums up the season. I thought there was better intent today with the bat, and that’s something we’ve been looking for, is just to free up. We’ve been sort of tense, so we haven’t been creating pressure on the bowlers and also losing wickets,” he added.
With this win, SRH have climbed to eighth on the points table with three wins and six losses, tallying six points. Meanwhile, CSK remain at the bottom, with only two wins in nine matches and just four points to their name.
