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Fleming seeks more penetration from spinners

Fri 24 Apr 2015, 12:00 am

Fleming seeks more penetration from spinners
Summary

CSK coach wants Ashwin and Jadeja to have bigger impact in the home games

After a slight hiccup against Rajasthan Royals in Ahmedabad, Chennai Super Kings brought their Pepsi IPL 2015 campaign back on track with an away win over Royal Challengers Bangalore. Now they are back home and their next opponents are Kings XI Punjab. Assessing his team’s performance so far in the tournament, CSK’s coach, Stephen Fleming said the one area where the team will look to improve in is spin bowling. He said on the wickets in their away games, the pair of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja played second fiddle to the pacers, but now they will be have a bigger role to play. “The spinning aspect of our game hasn’t been as affective as it has in the previous years so far and it is one area where in this game we would like to get a bit more penetration,” Fleming said. “But in saying that, we have won games despite our spinners not clicking. That is a good thing because in the past we have been called a team that relies too much on the spinners. If we can get the spin component going well at home, there will be an improvement.” While Fleming was pretty happy with Ashwin’s bowling rhythm, he said he expects a much better show from Jadeja. “In our home games Ashwin has been our lead bowler. It is not that he is in bad form. Jadeja is someone we would like more from and we are working hard at it.” CSK are the only IPL team that has an all-Indian bowling attack, manned by Ashish Nehra, Mohit Sharma, Ishwar Pandey, Ashwin and Jadeja. Fleming acknowledged that captain MS Dhoni’s understanding of these bowlers helps him get the best out of them. “He shares good relationships with those bowlers. Three of them play with him at the international level and one – Nehra – has played a lot of international cricket. His understanding of the bowlers helps him in getting the most out of them. They work well together.” Fleming was full of praise for Nehra who has been CSK’s best bowler so far in the tournament. In the last match he stifled RCB’s handsome batting lineup with figures of 4 for 10 and is currently the second highest wicket-taker with 10 scalps. “He is in very good form. When I say that, I mean that there is an element of ease into his bowling,” Fleming said of Nehra. “He is getting good swing and zip and I think that equates to a bowler being in good form. “Ashish is a rhythm bowler; when he is in rhythm, he is quicker and he has everything going right with the ball. When he is out of rhythm, it is a struggle. But he is in the groove at the moment and that has combined well with his experience. It is a big challenge to keep him fresh for the remainder of the tournament but thus far he has been outstanding. “We got Ashish Nehra in our ranks for two reasons last year – one was to lead the bowling attack and try to get as much out of them as possible. And he has been a revelation in that regards. It is nice for the young pacers to have an Indian figure to look up to. We are an Indian side with overseas players and that dynamic is very important to us,” Fleming signed off.