Stephen Fleming: Batsmen's over-aggression cost us game

MS Dhoni and Stephen Fleming (File Photo)

Kolkata, May 1 (IANS) Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming conceded that his batsmen were "too aggressive" and that eventually led his side to go down to defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens here on Thursday.

"It was high octane stuff...but it was too fast. We just lost too much resources, the run rate was great, the execution was exhilarating at times, but we just lost wickets when we would have liked to be just two wickets down for 70 runs at the end of powerplay," Fleming said at the post-match press conference.

"Today, we got it a little bit wrong by going too hard and then we had to scrap very hard to get a competitive total. The way we were going we could have ended getting up 350," said the former New Zealand captain admitting his batsmen were "in a hurry".

"Obviously we want to be positive and aggressive, but we certainly need to measure up. We have taken enough risks and just need to pull back our hits a little bit. That balance is something that we are always in search for," he said.

Incidentally, skipper MS Dhoni dubbed the batting effort a "conservative effort" asserting his boys need to be a bit more aggressive.

"Looking at where we are in the table, I think it's important we try to be a bit more aggressive, see what we can explore and how we can play," Dhoni said after his side lost the game by seven wickets, but retained their pole position at the point table with 12 points from eight games.

Fleming also refused to read much into Dhoni's batting form who has managed just 175 runs in eight games so far.

"He is okay... obviously you always want M.S. to do well in every game. Today it was unusual to see him get out so early under pressure like that," said Fleming on the skipper who managed to score just one run in the match before being castled by leggie Piyush Chawla.

"He (Dhoni) is fine, he is practicing hard, training well. We are fine, the tournament is going at such breakneck speed that you don't have time to over analyse, so we will just concentrate on the next match," added Fleming.