Ahmedabad, May 21 (IANS) Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming said the team will give their best against a strong bowling attack of Gujarat Titans (GT) as they look to end the group stage with a win and give themselves an outside chance to secure a birth in the playoffs.

CSK are currently seventh in the points table with 12 points in 13 matches. They can reach up to 14 points, and then they have to depend upon other teams’ results to go in their favour, while also maintaining a good net run rate.

Ahead of their crucial match against GT at Narendra Modi Stadium, Fleming said that the team is very clear in their mindset on how to perform against the home team. He also praised the comeback of the team from a disastrous start where they lost the opening three matches, but accepted that some poor performance in a couple of games have hurt their chances.

“It is our last opportunity, and we just got to have a crack at it. We’re really clear about what we need to do to stay in the competition. It’s not going to be easy. They’re a very good team at home, but it’s nice to still be in the mix and have a good challenge in front of us,” He said in a video released by CSK on X.

“We had a couple of close games that haven’t gone our way, which has been disappointing, but we’ve got this one to stay in the mix, and probably the first part of the tournament, people wouldn’t have seen that, but we got some good evidence. We’ve done some good things behind the team, introduced some good players, some good young players. So it’d be a nice way to finish and give ourselves a shot at it by winning against GT,” He added.

Fleming further noted that injuries to in-form players mid-tournament have caused problems for the team throughout the season.

“The injuries just at crucial times have hindered the balance of the side and made us pivot a little bit at key junctures,” he said.

According to the 53-year-old, the overs of GT’s fast bowlers Mohammad Siraj and Kagiso Rabada will be crucial, and the way CSK batters face them could determine the course of the game.

“They come up really hard with tall, fast bowlers, and they’ve got conditions that suit that. So it will be difficult for our top order to combat that. Rabada’s been in great form, Siraj has been excellent,” he said.

“If we can overcome that and then get a few partnerships, we probably just haven’t had the partnerships through the batting that we would want. And we also have to be positive throughout. So it’s a mix of trying to be positive against some really good fast bowling, taking a few risks, and hopefully it goes our way,” he added.

–IANS

sds/bsk/