"He Tortured Us In The Nets...": CSK Head Coach Stephen Fleming Praises KKR Star

Chennai Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming rued the the lost opportunity to pick their former net bowler Varun Chakravarthy at the IPL auctions, saying missing out on him "still hurts us". Chakravarthy served as CSK's net bowler for a few years and during his stint there, he troubled the CSK batters including skipper MS Dhoni. Playing his first IPL game at the Chepauk, The Tamil Nadu off-spinner played a vital role in Kolkata Knight Riders's six-wicket win over CSK on Sunday.

"It still hurts us (missing out on Varun). He tortured us in the nets for a number of years. Just with the auctions, the way it is, we couldn't retain him." Fleming said at the post match press conference.

Chakravarthy was picked up Punjab Kings (Kings XI Punjab) for Rs 8.4 crore at the 2019 auction before KKR bought him for Rs 4 crore in 2020 and have retained him since.

"The thing is with Tamil Nadu players all round in different teams, they knew about him as well. We were unable to keep him a secret.

"We were very excited by him as a talent when he bowled against us in the nets. And we would have loved him for a big price this year. He bowled very well today, he's a weapon." On Sunday's loss, Fleming said CSK did not read the conditions correctly.

"I don't think we got the conditions right, last game turned out to be considerably tough to bat. This one actually had a spongy bounce to start and then pretty much lost a bit of sting as the game went on.

"Pretty difficult to try and work out what the surfaces are going to do with the dew. I said the whole way through, we're still learning these new conditions," Fleming added.

CSK returned to playing at home after two years and the New Zealander said they are still trying to understand the