IPL 2025 | "Dhoni can't bat...": CSK coach Stephen Fleming

In the IPL 2025 Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming stated that MS Dhoni cant bat ten overs running as his knee remains a concern and hence the former skipper decides his batting position depending on the match situationIn the IPL 2025 match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru MS Dhoni came to bat at the ninth position CSK suffered a 50run loss against RCBRecently the Ruturaj Gaikwadled side suffered yet another humiliating loss against the Rajasthan RoyalsReflecting on the loss Stephen Fleming said If you analyse the game its probably the two power plays Our power play with the ball went for the best part of 80 runs and we were only able to manage early 40s he saidSo thats on the scoreboard the big difference and we were also sloppy in the field compared to Rajasthan who were outstanding So that would be the two immediate takeawaysDuring the IPL 2025 match against CSK RR captain Riyan Parag took a stunning catch to dismiss Shivam Dube The Chennai coach heaped praises on the opponent skipper for showcasing a brilliant effort on the fieldAlso ReadIPL 2025 With success comes stardom but Vignesh Puthurs coach CG VijayakumarI think Riyan Parags catch was the turning point in the match The Dube matchup was going our way but he Wanindu Hasaranga had courage You cant deny that and he certainly gave the ball airSometimes you give the ball air and in this competition you can go the distance but he had the courage to do that and Gaikwads wicket as well was very clever So he held his nerve and had a good dayIn the match against RR MS Dhoni came in to bat at number seven The veteran garnered 16 runs in 11 deliveries but fell short of taking the team homeIts a time thing MS judges it His body his knees arent what they used to be Hes moving okay but theres still a nutrition aspect to it He cant bat 10 overs running full stick So he will gauge on the day what he can give us Fleming said at the postmatch press conferenceIf the games in the balance like today he will go a little bit earlier and he backs other players when other opportunities are up So hes balancing that I said it last year hes too valuable to us with his leadership and wicket keeping to throw him in at 9 10 oversHes actually never done that So look from around 13 14 overs hes looking to go depending on whos inRepresenting Rajasthan Royals in the IPL 2025 Nitish Rana played a knock of 81 runs off just 36 deliveries His knock was laced with 10 fours and 5 sixesReflecting on his knock Fleming said Nitish Rana played really well I thought he combated a bit of bounce and a bit of seam early to get them off to a great start so that catch was big and then classy bowling from Hasaranga to Ruturaj So probably three pretty good momentsComing to bat at number three Nitish Rana found the decision in his favourI got to know yesterday Saturday when Rahul sir called me before going to practice Riyan also told me that I could bat at number 3 I guess that decision was very goodIn the first two matches I was trying to hit hard So my learning from the last two matches was that if I try to use pace in this wicket how much pace I can use on the new ball if I try to do that then my success rate can increase in making runs And today I did the same thingI think captaincy is very resultoriented If your result is in your favor then everyone says that you are a very good captain I dont believe that I think there are small battles in a T20 game How you win those battles that is important Nitish Rana saidA player knows that and Riyan is very calm as a captain And this dressing room is also very calm This starts with the coaches the kind of atmosphere that Sanju and even Rahul sir has created in the dressing room there was no panic And we just tried to focus on the processThe victory against CSK also marked Riyan Parags first win as a captain in the IPL 2025With PTI Inputs