Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming rued his team's performance in the middle-overs and lack of set batsmen in the crunch stages of their eventually unsuccessful run-chase against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Abu Dhabi this Wednesday (October 7) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020.

Chasing the target of 168 on a surface going slower with each over, CSK were 99/2 at one stage, with opener Shane Watson (50) and Ambati Rayudu (30) looking in fine touch. However, they lost both the batters and managed only 14 runs between overs 11th to 14th before going down by ten runs at the end. 

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"If we could have got one of those players to 75-plus and continued that partnership for another maybe four or five overs, the game might have been a lot different," said Fleming at the post-match press conference, as quoted by PTI.

"Kolkata hung in there long enough to put pressure on us and we just couldn't accelerate. We feel disappointed that we let it slip," he added. 

Fleming also came in defence of middle-order batsman Kedar Jadhav, who couldn't hit the ball off the square on the day and managed to score just 7* off the 12 deliveries he faced when the game was running away from CSK. 

When asked whether they could've send in power-hitting all-rounder Dwayne Bravo ahead of Jadhav, Fleming said: "At the time, we thought that Kedar could play the spinner well and dominate, while (Ravindra) Jadeja was there to come and finish. But in the end, there was too much work to do and we fell short."

Jadeja (21*) and Sam Curran (17) tried playing the big shots towards the end, but CSK were found short of the target. Earlier, skipper MS Dhoni (11) and opener Faf du Plessis (17) also couldn't play the sort of knocks that the team could've done with. 

Fleming played down suggestions that his team is missing the services of veteran left-hander Suresh Raina, who pulled out of the tournament due to personal reasons. 

"The performances like today, with the experience we have got, we should have put it away. We have got a lot of batsmen anyway, so the balance is very good with the six bowlers. I don't think an extra batsman is going to help," he said. 

The coach felt KKR spinner Sunil Narine (1/31) dismissing Watson in the 14th over when he looked good for so much more and then going through his overs largely unscathed made a telling difference. 

"Ideally, you have one or two players bat through...Today, with (Sunil) Narine holding overs back, it made it very difficult in the back-end," he said. 

"We've got so much batting resources. Kedar is a late middle to late (order) batter for India. We could have gone a whole lot of different ways. Today (Wednesday), Kedar had some balls but that didn't work out."

"You always put players in different areas and that's just when you have so much batting talent to choose from. It's one of the things we look at, but it's all in hindsight," Fleming added. 

While the batting failed, CSK's bowlers had one of their better outings in the competition. They bowled out KKR for 167, with wrist-spinner Karn Sharma (2/25) bowling a fine spell in his first game of the tournament and Curran (2/26), Shardul Thakur (2/28) also doing their job quite commendably. 

On Karn, who finally got his opportunity as replacement of Piyush Chawla, Fleming said, "He's been waiting for a while for an opportunity. In the first over, he was a bit unlucky but the next three overs he really worked hard and got us back into the game. I think he can get some confidence from this." 

"With the pitches drying out, we can use him in combination with Piyush and Jaddu (Jadeja). We might be able to operate with more spinners, which we are used to," he added. 

Jadeja, usually seen in action after the power-play, didn't bowl at all on the night despite the considerably slow pitch. 

"It's a question more for MS (Dhoni). I don't make those decisions. I would imagine that it was a little bit to do with the wind and also the match-ups that were out there with the left-handers. I think the general feel was that the medium pacers were doing a good job," Fleming concluded.