News
Fri 15 May 2015, 12:00 am
Summary
CSK keen to secure a place in first Qualifier
When the Chennai Super Kings take the field in Mohali on Saturday, their intention will be to finish the league phase at the top of the points table and seal their berth in Qualifier1 - the first of the playoff matches. The table-toppers will be playing Kings XI Punjab, who will finish the tournament at the bottom of the table, irrespective of the outcome of the match. Addressing the media in Mohali ahead of the match, CSK coach Stephen Fleming said, “The first thing to acknowledge is that we are delighted to qualify (for the Playoffs). The first goal when you start the season is to get through to the finals; so we are delighted with that (qualifying for Playoffs). Secondly, there is an advantage if you are (at) one and two, and we have an opportunity tomorrow to push for that position. So it is a very big game.” “We acknowledge the contrasting fortunes of both teams here. King XI played beautifully last year to knock us out and they are more than capable of doing that tomorrow. It’s a hard game for us because they have players, who are not only dangerous at the best of times, but play with a carefree attitude. It is a tough game for us.” “Hopefully we can get a result (win), which would be a big advantage going into the finals,” he explained while discussing the importance of the impending match. Brendon McCullum, CSK’s top run-getter this season, is available to play one last game for the team before he is released for national duty. But Fleming confirmed there won’t be any experimentation against Kings XI Punjab in an attempt to fill in the void that will be created when McCullum departs. “There won’t be experiments. But we will look at the players that we need coming up to the final. Obviously we will lose Brendon McCullum. We have been very settled in what we have tried to do, but we always knew that at some point there may be an occasion where we may need to introduce players. So we will look at that again today and just make sure that we respect the game tomorrow but also have one eye on the final as well as we introduce one or two players.” Speaking about the match against the Kings XI, who have very little to lose and will go all out as they look to finish their campaign on a winning note, he said, “I guess we have nothing to lose because we are through, so we can adopt that attitude. But we do want to qualify and finish the round robin well, so we need to create pressure to do that. We were poor in the last game. DD played very well but we weren’t as good as we could be. So we have got some questions to answer before we head to the final and it’s a good state for the team to be in.”