Madurai Super Giants head coach speaks about the reason for his side’s dismal performances

Madurai Super Giants skipper Shijith Chandran and head coach Russell Radhakrishnan addressed the media after their 33-run loss to Albert TUTI Patriots in their India Cements TN Premier League game at Chepauk on Tuesday. Here is an excerpt:

Were you were aware of the equation that the Patriots needed?

Shijith: No, we had our own problems, so we didn’t think about their run-rate or equation. We just wanted to come and win one game at least. We didn’t want to go home without anything. Plus, our aim was not to let the Patriots enter the semi-finals.

What went wrong for your team this season?

Shijith: We have a lots to improve in every department. If you look at the other teams, the in-form player carries the innings till the last over – a classic case being that of Kaushik Gandhi or N Jagadeesan. We haven’t done that, but we have a few star players who are not in form, so the people who are (in form) have to take extra responsibility – something which we failed to do.

In short we had a batting failure whereas in bowling we have to improve in the death overs. If you observe, in all our games till the 16th over, the average score is about 110. And we have conceded nearly 60 runs in the last five overs – a stat which hurt us.

Which game would you rate as your best this season?

Shijith: Definitely the one against VB Thiruvallur Veerans. We were 74/1 chasing 140 and we still messed up in that game. In all our games, our star players were not in form or didn’t carry on till the end, so it hurt us.

Since this was your first stint as a coach, how did you motivate the team post every loss?

Russell: I know all these boys, from 15 years ago, as I was a state selector. Unfortunately, the players who had to deliver didn’t and we didn’t finish any game. In the last game, and even this, we had managed to do well till the 16^th over post which everything went haywire.

It was a nice experience to be honest, and despite practice in the nets, you can’t go and teach skills during the actual game. You just send them in and ask them to score runs. Our openers never came good at all, as every game we had them losing their wickets in the second over itself.

Unfortunately, that was the team we picked and we didn’t have the necessary back-up strength either. All our strike bowlers did poorly and even I came in late. If I had come in earlier maybe I would have made a few more changes during the player drafts itself.

Every team, including the IPL franchises, picked the best teams during the drafts and still lost. Maybe next year, we will pick a few strike bowlers, a few guys to finish and start it off, and a few young boys as well.

All credit to the boys - they’re all good players, but some of them didn’t come good at all. They played six games and haven’t crossed fifty runs – an alarming stat. Our star player, KB, also played one match and couldn’t finish the game in the last two matches. You can’t win matches if your star players don’t score runs.

With regards to the franchise, they’re very nice people and they were very good to the boys and me. Even the encouragement was fantastic. For someone who has just coached a team for the first time, it was brilliant. There was no interference at all, it was like working for CSK.