We succumbed to pressure: Fleming
Board of Control for Cricket in India president N. Srinivasan was roundly booed by the Eden crowd at the presentation ceremony tha followed the IPL-6 final between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings here on Sunday.
Srinivasan’s position as the board president and CSK owner has been under focus since the arrest of his son-in-law and team principal Gurunath Meiyappan for alleged betting.
Although many fans had made their way out after the final ball was bowled, a good number of people stayed to see the ceremony and Srinivasan was left embarrassed when the announcement of his name was followed by boos from the crowd.
A similar incident took place during the closing ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games when fans had a go at Indian Olympic Association chief Suresh Kalmadi after continuous reports of large scale scams in the mega-event.
Meanwhile, coach Stephen Fleming was left to perform post-match media interaction duties again as skipper M.S. Dhoni chose to skip the occasion. “I said at the press conference yesterday that it had been a tough week and we hoped that the performance on the field will reflect the pride of the side. But it’s disappointing end to a season where we have played the most consistent cricket in the tournament,” the former New Zealand captain said.
“MI were always going to be a tough opposition, and under pressure they performed. The target was probably a par score. They came out and made it a winning score. We didn’t play good shots, we succumbed to pressure,” was Fleming’s assessment of the match.
CSK now have lost two successive finals in IPL but Fleming did not entirely agree that they had lost the knack of raising their game in big matches.
“Well you can’t say we have that edge because this is a one off game. Last year we lost playing good cricket, this year we batted poorly. We need to reach another final to rectify it and it’s not an easy task.
“We are still proud of making five out of six finals but yeah we would have liked to have won three or four out of five.”
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