Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming backed pacer Khaleel Ahmed to the hilt despite leaking 33 runs in the 19th over, but said they will be exploring more options going forward in the Indian Premier League.
CSK skipper MS Dhoni turned to Ahmed despite the impressive Anshul Kamboj (3-0-25-0) having one over remaining, but the left-arm quick wilted under Romario Shepherd’s assault.
“Khaleel has done really well for us this season, so, there’s no reason for MS to have changed that. Kamboj is growing into his role nicely. He has the ability to do death (over bowling). He will be an option going forward, but there was no reason why Khaleel would be replaced to do that,” said Fleming in the post-match press conference on Saturday night.
Till Shepherd went after him, Ahmed actually had the highest dot-ball count in this IPL at 110, three more than Mohammed Siraj.
Fleming then touched upon the lack of big runs yielding overs post the 10-over mark in the CSK innings while chasing 214, as his side ended up at 211 for five, falling short by a mere two runs.
“If there was a big over there we would have won, but they bowled well. We knew that there was going to be a steep climb towards the end, but we maintained a pretty good rate.
“And then when it came down to the business end it was just one or two hits away. Of course, we would have liked to have had a big over with 10 overs to go, but it just didn’t come about,” he said.
However, the former Kiwis skipper saw some bright spots in the emergence of some young players despite the slew of defeats this season for the Super Kings.
“It was a much better performance though, but just a couple of areas where we lost concentration and they pounced, in particular in the last two overs of the fielding effort.
“And then we actually battled really well. It’s been one of our struggles this year, but there were a couple of individual performances there that we’re really proud of,” he noted.
Fleming the