We are just trying to find a combination: Stephen Fleming

Rising Pune Supergiants lost their 4^th game in a row when they were defeated by the Kolkata Knight Riders by 2 wickets at Pune. A dejected RPS coach, Stephen Fleming, said that being a new side, they are still looking to find the right combination. In the post-match conference, he cited the need for finding the perfect winning combination.

“We are just trying to find a combination. Because we are new team, we are trying to understand what combinations will work. It’s not ideal but if we win 2 or 3 games in a row we probably will settle down. We are conscious about it and are just working on the combinations that will give us the results we need,” he said.

Fleming rightly spotted the flaw with the team and said the bowlers are not doing their job well enough. He said that the score of 160 against KKR was a par score but the bowlers bowled poorly to be not able to defend it. “What we are not doing is winning cricket and that’s all what matters. I thought today’s performance was poor, the performance on the field was very poor. 160 was a very good score on that surface. There was lot of assistance for the slow bowlers but we just didn’t adjust. We didn’t use our spin, we didn’t create enough pressure and kept Kolkata in the game,” the former Kiwi opener said.

Fleming said that it was perhaps the lack of usage of spin that cost them the game. Looking at the slow nature of the wicket, RPS had fielded 3 spinners and a slow bowler in the form of Rajat Bhatia. “We just let the pressure off with the ball. On a pitch like that we probably should have shot a team down with the amount of turn on offer and how difficult it was. With 3 spinners and a slow bowler in (Rajat) Bhatia we were suited to do well but we didn’t do it,” quoted the RPS coach.

When asked about the batting, Fleming said he was content with the batting performance. Speaking on Kevin Pietersen’s exit, he said the team would definitely miss him. “(Steven) Smith and (Ajinkya) Rahane gave us the opportunity. We were very happy with 160,” Fleming said.

“We didn’t miss Kevin (Pietersen) much in the batting sense (last night) but we will miss his presence in the tournament of course,” he added.

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