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 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.
He 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 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. 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,” Fleming said in the press conference.
“It’s not the Chepauk [of old] where you can just go in and play four spinners. We’re having to work really hard to try and understand what the nature of each pitch is, and it’s quite different,” he added.
Chennai won the toss and elected to ball first against RCB, expecting the dew to play a part in the second innings. Instead, the wicket got slower and got difficult for the batters, resulting in CSK’s big defeat.
“No, we didn’t get it right,” Fleming said. “It’s so hard to read, but we thought it was going to skid on with the dew, but it actually got a bit tacky. So, it certainly made it harder here,” Fleming mentioned.
