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Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming believes Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter Tim David's late-innings surge was the decisive moment in their loss to the defending champions on Sunday, highlighting how his acceleration in the final five overs shifted the game's momentum.
David rocked CSK in the final few overs with a stunning 25-ball 70*, including three fours and eight sixes. RCB registered a commanding 43-run win over CSK in the IPL 2026 match on Sunday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. David's 25-ball 70-run innings, along with contributions from other batters, and an all-round effort with the ball led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, helped defending champions RCB clinch their second consecutive win of the season. "The real turning point was the Tim David in the back end, the acceleration he did through the last sort of five overs," Stephen Fleming told the reporters after the match. Fleming also said that CSK started well and created chances but failed to take enough wickets and lost control in the final overs. Fleming felt that 210-220 total would have been in CSK's reach, but the late slump left them shaken, which also affected their batting early on. "Some good things early on, we created some chances. We unfortunately just couldn't get a couple more wickets for our efforts, and then we hung in, and then unfortunately just lost our shape in the back end. It was a good wicket, and I think if we'd just been able to hold our nerve and execute a bit better, 210, 220 would have been in our grasp. But we just got a little bit shell-shocked and that flowed through into the early parts of batting as well," Fleming added. Explosive knocks from Tim David, Devdutt Padikkal and skipper Rajat Patidar helped RCB put up a massive 250/3 against five-time champions CSK. CSK, despite a 25-ball 50 from Sarfaraz Khan, a 43-run knock off 29 balls from Prashant Veer, and a 16-ball 37 cameo from Jamie Overton, fell short by 43 runs as the Ruturaj Gaikwad-led CSK got bundled out for 207/10 in 19.4 overs. The win marks RCB's second win in as many IPL 2026 matches and now sit atop the points table with four points and an impressive Net Run Rate (NRR) of +2.501. CSK, on the other hand, find themselves at the bottom of the IPL 2026 standings with no wins in three matches. (ANI)
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