It took until the 15th over, but when it came - a big six from Tim David off Moeen Ali to cap off Mumbai Indians' paltry chase - it officially brought down the curtains on Chennai Super Kings' forgettable IPL 2022 campaign. In truth, the season ended when they suffered for four games early on and even when the rut of defeats ended, it didn't bring consistency. None of the four wins in 12 games for CSK have been successive ones, summing up their season and the lowly position they find themselves in.
The form and failures this term have had their likenesses to the season of 2020, except that were perceived to be the end of a three-year cycle - until the COVID situation added a fourth year to it - while the ongoing season is the just the start of one following the mega auction.
"The last one [2020] was year three [of a cycle] so we had a lot of time to work with players. We really had a good idea of what they were capable of. Now we're still learning about our squad as most teams are and we can learn a lot over the next couple of games and go forward," Fleming said in the aftermath of the defeat at the hallowed Wankhede stadium.
"What I can say is there's not much margin between having a great season and a not-so-great season. We've been through enough of these seasons to know that. We're not going to tune too much over, but we do need to improve in some areas.
While such a reflection and inference after a season such as this is only natural, Fleming has small gains - as he did in 2020 - to work with and take forward. Two seasons ago, it was the slow but assured emergence of Ruturaj Gaikwad, who'd missed games through COVID, struggled to get going, and eventually, when the pressure of making top-4 was off, finished the season with three half-centuries.
Such was the impact he had on Fleming that the CSK head coach joked about the predicament CSK would be in if the mega auction had come right away and provided every other franchise to take a stab at making the Maharashtra opener their own. Cut to 2021 and Ruturaj had the IPL trophy in hand and the orange cap on his head - a turn of events that should fill Fleming and MS Dhoni with hope about a couple of standout performers this year.
"There are some really positive signs. I thought the new ball bowling of Simerjeet and Mukesh was outstanding. We've been developing Mukesh all the way through the season so for him to now feel confident enough to bowl a spell like that... and Simerjeet is only 3-4 games in and he made some good gains," Fleming said.
On a day when CSK batters could only muster 98 in conditions that sided with the bowlers, left-armer Mukesh swung the new ball, ruffled feathers, and made MI toil for their small target. In most games leading up to Thursday's fixture, Mukesh has shown the kind of growth for Dhoni to trust him entirely to pick wickets in the PowerPlay - a CSK trait that went missing earlier in the season with the absence of Deepak Chahar. In a season where left-arm quicks across teams have proven their worth, CSK has reaped the faith they've shown in the 21-year-old, who has picked 11 of his 16 wickets in the PowerPlay. Thursday's spell of 3 for 23 played a big role in reducing MI to 33 for 4 inside the PowerPlay, earning Dhoni's seal of approval for a performance sans the end result.
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