Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming has said that CSK haven’t been able to read the Chepauk pitch in recent years. During the IPL 2025 auction, CSK had stacked their squad with spin, but the Chepauk pitch seemed to assist the seamers more than the spinners during their second home game of the season.
Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming was left frustrated with his team not enjoying home advantage in the ongoing IPL 2025. He noted that the nature of the pitch has changed significantly at Chepauk as they can no longer bank heavily on the spinners.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Stephen Fleming lost his cool at a journalist, following his side’s loss to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Friday. Fleming went back and forth at the journalist who compared CSK’s brand of cricket to the other teams. The former New Zealand, captain Stephen Fleming, however, was not in a jovial mood as he slammed the journalist for his “silly” question. CSK suffered its first loss of the season, going down against RCB, who won at the Chepauk for the first time after 2008, by 50 runs.
RCB beats CSK by 50 runs at Chepauk after 17 long years
Last time RCB beat CSK at their own den at Chepauk, Rahul Dravid was the skipper of RCB with Anil Kumble leading the bowling alongside Virat Kohli who was an u-19 winning World Cup skipper donning Jersey No 5 which has now transitioned to world famous Jersey No 18 , 17 years later.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) suffered their first defeat to the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at home since 2008 after they went down by 50 runs in their second game of IPL 2025. While most teams are trying to go bonkers from ball one, with 250 being the new 200, CSK have stuck with the old-school approach to start cautiously and pick momentum later in the innings.
It worked well for them against MI as they were chasing a target of 156, however, RCB posted 196, and the team failed to keep up with the run rate. Early wickets pegged them back, and the mounting run rate aided in the collapse. Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar claimed combined figures of 7-0-41-4 to shut CSK down in their chase of 197.
Chennai Super Kings suffered their biggest-ever home defeat at the hands of Royal Challengers Bengaluru on March 28. Both batting and bowling departments struggled to make an impact as the Ruturaj Gaikwad-led side lost the match by 50 runs at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. After the defeat, head coach Stephen Fleming expressed frustration, stating that the five-time champions aren’t provided any ‘home advantage’ and that the team has struggled to read the surface in recent times.
Stephen Fleming left frustrated with ‘no home advantage’ after CSK’s biggest defeat at Chepauk in 17 years
Stephen Fleming explained that the nature of the pitch has changed in the last few years as they can no longer play four spinners and expect to get the job done. The former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming added that the team is trying to come to grips every day regarding the nature of the pitch and stated that it has been quite different lately.
“Well, as we’ve been telling you for a number of years, there was no home advantage at Chepauk,” Stephen Fleming said after CSK suffered their biggest defeat at home.
“We’ve won away from home a couple of times. And we haven’t been able to read… we’ve been really honest with you. We haven’t been able to read the wickets here in the last couple of years. So, it’s not new. We are trying to come to grips each day with what we get, and we don’t know.”
The Chepauk pitches in IPL 2024 didn’t suit spin, which has been CSK’s traditional strength. The fast bowlers took 74 wickets while the spinners claimed only 25 at the venue last season.
“It’s not the Chepauk [of old] where you can just go in and play four spinners,” Stephen Fleming said.
“We’re having to work really hard to try and understand what the nature of each pitch is, and it’s quite different.”
CSK’s batters don’t usually swing from the get-go – which can become a talking point when big chases go wrong – but that doesn’t make them a bad team, Fleming insisted.
When Fleming was asked if “this [batting approach] was his way of playing cricket”, it didn’t go down too well with him. Somewhat testy reactions from the usually calm Fleming suggested that CSK might be feeling the heat.
“We talk about firepower, we have firepower all the way through,” Stephen Fleming said.
“I don’t understand this question. Just because we don’t swing from ball one and have a little bit of luck go away, we’ll see at the end. Just see at the end who wins it. It’s a positive brand of cricket, no doubt about it, but don’t discount us.” he concluded
However the heavy loss to RCB at Chepauk would make Chennai Lions rise with eyes open setting up their journey ahead in IPL 2025 an exciting one.