'We are not playing winning cricket' - Fleming

Rising Pune Supergiants coach Stephen Fleming did not mince words when he said he was "angry" and disappointed by a two-wicket defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders which he called "very poor." The defeat, Supergiants' second successive home loss and fourth in a row, has put the Supergiants second to last on the IPL table after five matches - equal with Kings XI Punjab on two points but above them on net run rate.

"We are not playing winning cricket and that's all matters," Fleming said in an appraisal of his team's performance on Sunday when the Supergiants failed to defend 160 on a pitch that was slow and taking turn. "I thought today's performance was poor, performance in the field was I thought very poor."

According to Fleming, his bowlers failed to dominate the Knight Riders especially after the opposition had lost their opening pair of Robin Uthappa and captain Gautam Gambhir inside the first three overs. Instead Suryakumar Yadav and Yusuf Pathan rebuilt the Knight Riders innings, creating a winning platform that was able to withstand a late wobble.

"160 was a good to very good score on this surface," Fleming said. "We saw there was a lot of assistance for the slow bowlers, but we still did not adjust. We did not use that spin to create enough pressure. We kept Kolkata in the game. They hit well at crucial times, but our fielding and the bowling… the slow bowling in particular towards the middle overs was left wanting and that is disappointing. 161 was easily defendable."

Even in the batting, the Supergiants were circumspect during the field restrictions, finishing at 31 for 1 in six overs. In contrast, the Knight Riders were 59 for 2 after the powerplay. Fleming said the Supergiants top order was cautious and tentative about the pitch which was taking turn straightaway and that was one reason for the contrasting approaches to the powerplay.

"Their six overs was a mixture of poor bowling and some good strokeplay," Fleming said. "But apart from that, as I said, at a time they were going 10 an over, and on a ground where it should have been a tight tussle, we gave away too many free runs. And when you are in a positon when you need to win a game, it is unacceptable."

On the eve of the previous match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Fleming had said that he was not fussed about losing as being a new franchise everyone was getting used to the new environment. After four defeats, clearly the Supergiants are in disarray. So how does Fleming intend to raise the morale of the dressing room? At the moment, he is in no mood to be sympathetic.

"I was pretty angry with the way things went today so my morale needs a bit of boost," Fleming said with a wry smile. "I've been in the IPL long enough to know that we have to sleep on it, tomorrow we've got to travel down and then we are back into it.

"So it's becoming pretty clear that whilst we don't want to put the onus on getting victories, we have to get victories. We're using up all those free lives. Even the last two games, we have a good chance of winning. We've just got to move on but there's no doubt as a new team, trying to develop some culture and some camaraderie, but it does take a little bit of work."

Another problem is that Dhoni's key lieutenant, R Ashwin, is going through a period of low form. The senior India offspinner has just one wicket so far in five matches. Curiously he has not been able to finish his quota of four overs in the last two matches and three of the five on the season. Against Royal Challengers, Ashwin still had one over left and on Sunday, after Yadav hit a six each in Ashwin's first two overs which went for 21 runs during the powerplay, Dhoni did not throw the ball back to Ashwin. Fleming conceded that Ashwin's dip in form was affecting the team.

"I thought today was disappointing," Fleming said. "I would have thought that he could have played a key role. But in terms of that line in the first six overs, he just struggled to get to grips with the pace and line he wanted to bowl. So we have to look at that but if we get conditions like that again I think he himself would concede he can be better."

Ashwin got exaggerated turn as soon as he started and even delivered wides spinning down leg in each of his two overs. Yadav said that seeing Ashwin getting adjusted to the pitch and the lines allowed him to settle down. That he managed to dominate the opposition's lead spinner was not intended but happened as he found balls that he could hit. But Fleming said he would not blame Ashwin for the Supergiants getting off to a poor start in the field.

"There were lots of turning points," Fleming said. "You can look at a lot of scenarios like that where we just let the pressure off. We would bowl two or three balls okay and the next two were not good enough. On a pitch [like this] you should really shut the team down.

"You saw the amount of turn and how difficult it was with the pace of the ball. With that knowledge, I would have expected us to shut that side down. With three spinners and a slow bowler like [Rajat] Bhatia we were well suited to do well. But the fact that we didn't do that is very disappointing."