Dubai, Oct 7 (Agency) It was only the 13th over of the chase when KL Rahul hit his eighth six of the innings, and the teams exchanged post-game pleasantries. It was a weird evening, where Rahul trudged off knowing that his superlative effort – 98* off 42 – will eventually count for zilch, while MS Dhoni – who spent a lot of time in that second innings looking pensively at his bowlers, can shrug the feeling off and look ahead immediately. PBKS became the third successive team to throw up an insurmountable hurdle in the face of CSK’s seamless sprint since IPL’s move to UAE – and more importantly, the second to poke genuine holes into their otherwise fluent batting. Just three days ago, Delhi Capitals provided a blueprint – attack the head, and the body crumbles – and PBKS lapped it up straightaway.
“We couldn’t find a method to get any fluency into our batting,” Fleming said. “Right from the start, the players were trying to find the best ways to take the bowling on but it was very good, and it [pitch] probably was a little bit slow… maybe a little bit variable. So getting the pace of the wicket and then trying to find the tempo to create a score. We just came up short. And whenever we get close, we lose a wicket. It was a very stunted effort in the first innings to keep us below par.”