IPL 2020: ‘He’s the best captain I’ve come across’ – Scott Styris on CSK head coach Stephen Fleming

IPL 2020: ‘He’s the best captain I’ve come across’ – Scott Styris on CSK head coach Stephen Fleming
Scott Styris

Former New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris named his former captain and current Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming as the best captain he’s come across. Fleming has been centre of attraction for being a bit cranky in the press conferences because of the hard-hitting questions asked to him after miserable performances of CSK in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 so far.

Styris who has played a lot of cricket with Fleming said that the emphasis should be on why he has relinquished his cool so often this year.

“Stephen Fleming is the best captain I’ve come across. And he coaches the way he captained,” Styris said on Star Sports. “It’s happened a lot (in the past too). But I think we got to focus on why he was grumpy. He talked about the processes, he wasn’t happy with it, those are the little things you can control whether you win or lose.”

Responding on the same, legendary Brian Lara said Fleming just needs to get the best out of CSK players. “He will be a little animated and he wants to get the best out of his players. He can’t do it himself,” Lara said.

‘Don’t think an extra batsman is going to help’: Stephen Fleming

Stephen Fleming

CSK underwent their fourth loss against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as they are beaten by 10 runs in the IPL 2020. Sending Kedar Jadhav ahead of Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo when the required run rate was in their favour was questioned by many.

“At the time, we thought that Kedar could play the spinner well and dominate, while Jadeja was there to come and finish. But in the end, there was too much work to do and we fell short,” Fleming said at the press-match conference.

“If we could have got one of those players to 75-plus and continued that partnership for another maybe four or five overs, the game might have been a lot different. Kolkata hung in there long enough to put pressure on us and we just couldn’t accelerate. We feel disappointed that we let it slip,” he added.

Suresh Raina’s absence who pulled out of IPL 2020 for personal reasons, was once again felt in the middle order but Fleming said that they have a well-balanced team.

“But the performances like today, with the experience we have got, we should have put it away. We have got a lot of batsmen anyway so the balance is very good with the six bowlers. I don’t think an extra batsman is going to help.” Dinesh Karthik’s ploy to hold his ace spinner Sunil Narine for the back-end of the innings paid dividends as he dismissed his ‘bunny’ Watson for the ninth time in T20s,” the coach added.

“Ideally, you have one or two players bat through…Today with (Sunil) Narine holding overs back, it made it very difficult in the back-end.”

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