IPL 2016: Stephen Fleming believes it is hard to replicate Chennai Super Kings
Rising Pune Supergiants coach Stephen Fleming said it will take a lot of effort to replicate a team like Chennai Super Kings and achieve the results which the team did till 2015.
RPSG, which looked strong on paper, have been struggling to perform in their debut edition. They have lost six of their first nine matches and have not crossed the lower half of the points table.
The combination of Fleming as the coach and Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the captain, which was seen as a winning formula has fizzled out, and they both are facing massive pressure as a result.
"It was new challenge and we were coming out of a situation where we were pretty well placed… it's a lot of hard work (to achieve the results that CSK did)," Fleming told NDTV.
During the IPL auctions, RPSG were very sharp with their picks. They put their money on one of the most successful limited-overs captain- Dhoni, and along with him, they picked the Kiwi legend Fleming who was behind the tremendous success of CSK till 2015.
Also read: IPL 2016: RPS still struggling to find right combination, says Stephen Fleming
They also bought a number of overseas players like Faf du Plessis, Steven Smith, and Kevin Pietersen for hefty amounts and had ex-CSK spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on their side. Apart from them, they had good limited-overs performers like Ajinkya Rahane and Mitchell Marsh.
Unfortunately, their four dependable players- Smith, Faf, Pietersen and Marsh were ruled out of the tournament due to injuries and RPSG's performance waned. Australian batsmen Usman Khawaja and George Bailey were added to the squad as replacements and played in the game against Delhi Daredevils.
They ended their losing streak on Thursday after they registered a seven-wicket victory over DD at the Feroz Shah Kotla. The bowlers did a commendable job by restricting their opponents to 162/7 and Rahane (63 off 48) helped his team chase down the target.
Fleming accepts that it not an easy task to build and adjust to a new unit after eight years of working together at CSK. "We are trying to develop some systems that will enable us to get success and longevity," the Kiwi opener said.
Former CSK players like Dhoni, Raina and Bravo had earlier expressed how emotional it was to play for a new team as CSK had become a part of their professional livelihood.
RPSG will be taking on Sunrisers Hyderabad at Vishakapatnam on May 10, and every match for Dhoni's men from now on will be crucial since they are in a do-or-die situation.