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IPL 2016: Dhoni’s knock was pretty remarkable, says RPS coach Stephen Fleming

RPS head coach Stephen Fleming said after the win here that “Dhoni’s knock was pretty remarkable”.

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Rising Pune Supergiants head coach Stephen Fleming addresses the media after Saturday’s win in Visakhapatnam
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Rising Pune Supergiants avoided the embarrassment of taking home the wooden spoon with a Mahendra Singh Dhoni-fashioned four-wicket win over Kings XI Punjab here on Saturday.

With 10 points from 14 games, RPS finished seventh with Dhoni scoring a magical 32-ball 64 not out with four fours and five sixes, three of those maximum hits coming off the last over when RPS needed 23 to win.
That Dhoni hit two sixes when 12 were needed off the last delivery has shown that there was nothing wrong with his batting. It was only strange that his best effort with the bat came in the last outing after struggling in the previous games.

RPS head coach Stephen Fleming said after the win here that “Dhoni’s knock was pretty remarkable”.

“His knock probably covered up the performances that were below par this season. While we chased down 170, we were stuttering along but individual brilliances helped us cross the line. What we have been missing through the campaign were special moments where players play a match-winning innings. Steve Smith played a couple. MS played one here. We have been good but we were not outstanding. MS was outstanding and that is the difference between winning and losing,” Fleming said.

Click here for the full coverage of the IPL 2016, including commentary, fixtures, scorecards and more.

It was not just Dhoni’s best in the last game. Even off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin returned his tournament’s best of 4/34 on Saturday.

Fleming said: “Ashwin has been good. The last part of the games here (Visakhapatnam), he has been good. And in helpful conditions, he has played well.

“From finishing point of view, Dhoni has been frustrated. I think that will go a long way today to give him more confidence. He has been working very hard in the nets. He knows the role he plays is to win games in the back end. We have lost games that we should have won and we won a game here today that we should not have won. That is the nature of T20 but we showed today that we still have that brilliance, we still have the ability to clear the rope when needed. It dare say that it was vintage performance on the day.”

‘Disappointed with season finish’

For Fleming as coach and Dhoni as captain, the two are not used to finishing in the bottom half of the table. They have been at the helm of Chennai Super Kings that has been in the top half in the first eight IPL seasons.

Fleming said: “We are disappointed. We could have been better. Coaching right through to the plan, whenever you don’t reach the final, we have some regrets. We are a new franchise, we had some challenges around getting to know each other quickly, we had lost four of our top overseas players through injuries. We had been a little bit uncertain throughout the tournament and that probably reflected that we lost five last-over games. If you are a little bit more settled and do things fractionally better, you get across over the line in them, or at least half of them. Five wins, three of them last over finishes, are not too bad. If you want to put a positive spin on that, we were very close. We have got to get better and that is the over-riding aspect that we wanted to finish the last two games here as well. But we have the determination that we are in the process of getting better.”

When the asking rate was mounting and Thisara Perera also back in the pavilion, Dhoni took almost all the strike, letting Ashwin face only one of the last 11 deliveries. Fleming said: “I have not seen that before. There might have been times when it gets out of reach for the other players. Today, he took it upon himself in winning the game. If you don’t get across the line, you analyse it. But again, he had unbelievable faith and ability to do it. That was part of an extraordinary effort.”

Bowling needs improvement

While RPS have struggled with their bowling this season, Fleming said that they have identified the bowling unit going ahead into the next year.

“Bowling is one of the areas that we need to get better at. We were looking to be batting strong, we lost four out of our six options. As change of strategy around the overseas combinations to use an all-rounder and an overseas bowler, that was not the plan to start with. We had to change tactic. There were some good performances. Ashok Dinda, when he got his opportunities, he was very good. We introduced Deepak Chahar (against Delhi Daredevils on May 17), who looks promising. Adam Zampa and Ashwin together looked very good. There are some positives there but as a combination, we are still give away 10-15 runs too many. But that is fine when you have a powerhouse top six. When we change philosophy, they were not quite good enough. That sums up the campaign. Not quite good enough. We competed in every game, reflected in our positive net run rate. It shows we competed in every game. That is a good sign from a character point of view. But we have to tweak this side to get better next year.”

Ready to be scrutinised

With just five wins in 14 games, Fleming is ready to be scrutinised by the team owners. He said: “Maybe I am part of the review. When things don’t go right, I know as a coach you put yourself up to be analysed. There are some things that the team could have done better. If you don’t admit your mistakes, you are not going to go forward. It was a different set of challenges, losing our home ground as well. We struggled to find what was going to be our best 11 for each condition. And the way we played away games. But I, like anyone, will be up for review and am sure what the owner will look at what we done, what we have tried to achieve. We have built up a relationship in a short space of time on what we tried to achieve. If you don’t achieve results, you will be certainly be up for scrutiny and I expect that. Look forward to the opportunity if it comes next year.”

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