Chennai Super Kings faced a defeat at the hands of Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur on Firday. Chasing 177 on a slow track, RR rode on Jos Buttler’s unbeaten 95 to etch a win for themselves. Talking about Buttler’s innings in the post-match press conference, CSK coach Stephen Fleming appreciated the effort from the wicketkeeper-batsman. “Buttler played a very good innings on a difficult track. A fair bit of pressure (was built) with the way he played. It was a great lone hand and we had no real answers. He was able to take the conditions out of play. However, he still found it difficult as the game went on,” the former New Zealand international said.

Fleming insisted that the game was poised was evenly poised in the middle overs, in spite of the English player scoring some runs in the powerplay overs. “Buttler got some momentum through the first six overs. But the game was pretty even after we got a couple of wickets. But we were hoping that as the pitch got slower, we could create some opportunity with our slower bowlers. We came very much planned to the conditions of the wicket rather than the plans with Buttler,” he said.

Mentioning about the score that his side had put on the board, the former Kiwi skipper said that according to him, the score was “just” par. Moreover, Fleming suggested that losing wickets at key moments did not allow them to add more runs to the CSK’s total. “I felt we were just about par. we lost some wickets at key times and their death bowling is very good. That was, I was pretty comfortable with the score that we go,” Fleming said.

Rajasthan Royals are still in contention of making it to the play-offs after Friday’s win while CSK are sitting at second spot with 14 points from 11 matches.