Chennai Super Kings suffered their seventh loss of the IPL 2025 season, falling to Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets as Stephen Fleming blames the auction strategy.
Chennai Super Kings’ disappointing IPL 2025 campaign took another major blow as they slumped to a five-wicket loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad, leaving them at the bottom of the points table. CSK head coach Stephen Fleming admitted the team’s auction strategy had failed, further adding to their problems on the field.
With only two wins from nine games, Chennai’s season has been plagued by poor teamwork, lack of clear planning, and inconsistent performances. Injuries and changing player form have added to the challenges, forcing Fleming to call for stronger accountability from the players.
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Fleming openly accepted that CSK have not adapted well to the changing standards in the league and stressed on the need to reflect on what went wrong. He pointed to an unsettled game plan and too many changes as reasons behind the continued failures.
“Other teams have got better, and that’s the point of the auction. But we just haven’t been able to get it right. So you take responsibility from the top down, and then you just ask a little bit more of the players. That has to be an area where we need to reflect and say it wasn’t as good as what it could have been, or it hasn’t worked out how we wanted,” Fleming said.
The CSK coach also explained how a mix of injuries, confusion on and off the field, and weak game strategies led to their downfall.
“A couple of key injuries, just a bit of a lack of form. And we’ve just struggled really to nail a game plan, chopped and changed too much. But I think it was trying to look for something that perhaps we felt wasn’t there,” Fleming added.
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Speaking after the defeat to SRH, Fleming said the result reflected their entire season. He noted that while the batting showed more purpose in this game, the players were still not able to create pressure.
“The game sort of sums up the season. I thought there was better intent today with the bat, and that’s something we’ve been looking for, is just to free up. We’ve been sort of tense, so we haven’t been creating pressure on the bowlers and also losing wickets,” he concluded.
With this result, Sunrisers Hyderabad climbed to eighth place, while CSK remained at the bottom with just four points, virtually ending their chances of making the playoffs.
