Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming Praising Karthik Sharma's impressive innings, he said that the youngster will only improve after his memorable performance against Mumbai Indians (MI). CSK kept their playoff hopes alive by defeating their arch-rivals by eight wickets at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
While chasing a modest target of 160, Karthik was sent up the order ahead of Shivam Dubey and Dewald Brewis. He scored an unbeaten 54 off 40 balls, which included four fours and three sixes, and led his team to a comfortable win.
“You have young players, so there are two parts to it. One is how you introduce them. It's a big stage, no matter what they're doing domestically. So it's really important to understand their mentality, and that's a big step. They may have all the talent in the world, but the temperament is what we're looking for. And their introduction was tough at the beginning, and then they had a little bit of time where they worked hard, and today was a good reward for that, ” Fleming said. Press conference after the match.
“He's a good player, and he was expensive at the auction because other people also see that. And it was good to see his temperament and skill along with the performance tonight, and he's going to get better and better. So it's a good place for him, and the timing was right. So we're really happy and proud with what he did today,” he said.
MI were restricted by an excellent bowling performance from CSK, with Anshul Kamboj taking three wickets and Noor Ahmed taking two. Kamboj's spell also saw him finish as the joint-highest wicket-taker in the tournament, with 17 wickets to his name.
“It's no surprise to us. At the end of last year, he was really good. He has worked hard on the concept of death bowling with Eric Simmons (CSK bowling coach), and he has worked during the year to master it. And I think you have seen some good performances, both the reason and what he is doing, and then the ability to perform under pressure. And those are two really important components at the death, and we really needed proof. And then, a lot of the work we've done pre-season and with understanding open wickets and angles and what he can and can't do from certain sides of the wicket, and that's very impressive,” Fleming said.
Ramakrishna Ghosh made his IPL debut in the match, bowling a good spell of three overs for 24 runs and taking the important wicket of Suryakumar Yadav. A batting all-rounder by profession, he impressed Fleming with his overall performance.
The win took CSK to sixth place in the points table with eight points from eight matches. Their next match will be against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.
“His improvement in recent weeks has been noticeable. He's been training really well in our workouts at the academy. We have two grounds that we use. It's been very impressive. It's very disappointing that he got injured at the end, but the other thing was – he bats and bats well, and that's an area of big improvement. So he can really be called an all-rounder,” Fleming concluded.
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