Mumbai,<\/p>\n
Chennai Super Kings have won three IPL titles, but the one they won on Sunday has to be the most special and satisfying. CSK head coach Stephen Fleming almost said it in so many words. \u201cIt was difficult two years for the franchise. The desire to get back to the competition was high. It was sustainable to keep winning throughout. The players were motivated (to win),\u201d said Fleming. \u201cI am proud of how different individuals stood up at key times. I am proud the way experienced players showed their way. We believe experience coming back into the competition was going to be a key component. There were lots of emotions in the franchise for what had happened, there was a lot of reasoning behind this team,\u201d said Fleming. Back in IPL after serving out a two-year ban for their team management\u2019s role in the 2013 spot-fixing scandal, CSK outplayed Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets in the summit clash on Sunday night to clinch their third title. CSK had previously won the title in 2010 and 2011. Fleming said the consistency that the likes of MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina bring to the table played a major role in his side\u2019s campaign. \u201cWe value experience for consistency, guys who keep doing it and not the one-offs. The Dhonis and Rainas take you deep into the tournament,\u201d he said. The coach said communication and defining roles were important for his team. \u201cCommunication and defining roles are crucial. We needed to look at characters; Rayudu is a character who I valued. Dhoni was open about him batting at the top. Kedar Jadhav is another good character who we lost (due to injury). It is not rocket science, but looking after little things,\u201d Fleming said.<\/p>\n
Fitness matters, not age: MSD Not many would have given Dhoni\u2019s men much chance this time around. Having as many as 11 players on the wrong side of 30s, the Chennai squad was ridiculed as a Dad\u2019s army. Yet, they ended up thrashing the more fancied teams and lifting the trophy. Incidentally, Rayudu and Shane Watson, two of their 30-plus, ended up among the top-five run-getters. \u201cWe talked a lot about age but what matters is fitness. Rayudu, for example, is 32, but he\u2019s fit, covers a lot of ground… So it\u2019s fitness that matters more than age,\u201d said Dhoni. \u201cCaptains want players who move well in the field. It doesn\u2019t matter which year a player is born in, you have to be agile. You have to accept your shortcomings. \u201cFor example if I push Watson to stop a single, there is a very good chance that he\u2019ll burst his hamstring and won\u2019t be available for the next game. So what you tell yourselves is that they have to commit and try, but there\u2019s no point getting injured for a single,\u201d explained Dhoni. Interestingly, while he captained India, Dhoni never gave any leeway to any player as far as fielding was concerned. He firmly believed that easy singles released pressure, and hit the team hard. But that\u2019s another story for another day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mumbai, Chennai Super Kings have won three IPL titles, but the one they won on Sunday has to be the most special and satisfying. CSK head coach Stephen Fleming almost said it in so many words. \u201cIt was difficult two years for the franchise. The desire to get back to the competition was high. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32434,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32432\/revisions\/32434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}