Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming was scathing in his assessment of his team's fielding effort against Punjab Kings on Tuesday night as they slumped to their fourth defeat on the trot in the ongoing Indian Premier League.
The Super Kings were tilting at windmills in the field, fluffing up match-defining opportunities. CSK's tragic story of dropped chances continued, and two of those allowed Priyansh Arya to break the shackles and wallop to a 39-ball century.
Khaleel Ahmed was guilty of spilling a caught and bowled in the very first over on a score of six, while Mukesh Choudhary floored it at long-off in the 12th off Ravichandran Ashwin when Arya was batting with belligerence on 73.
The story of missed chances just didn't end there for CSK. The five-time champions paid through their nose after Shashank Singh, who was going about the business with his usual explosive ways, earned a second lifeline when Ravindra dropped a sitter off Noor Ahmad at deep midwicket in the 17th over.
CSK have dropped 13 catches in their first five matches this season and it could be what defines their campaign eventually.
'The game was really lost in the field. I thought we were sloppy in the field and that we just lacked accuracy under pressure at certain times. We were put under pressure by a fine innings [from Arya], but we've got to be better than that in terms of shutting it down. So that's where the game got away from us,' Fleming assessed in the post-match press conference on Tuesday.
'We're 18 runs short in a big run chase, so we can look at three sixes here and there. It's been a frustrating season so far. The catching has been poor, but it was poor from both sides tonight. Whether it was something in the light, I'm not sure, but certainly for us, that was an area of concern,' he added.
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