We haven't won key moments - Fleming

"What we are not doing is winning cricket."

"We don't have the nucleus of players who have played together."

"We're using up all those free lives."

"I was pretty angry with the way things went today so my morale needs a bit of boost."

These statements from Stephen Fleming, coach of Rising Pune Supergiants, underline his thoughts on the side's downward spiral in their first IPL. The pain of defeat is one thing, but having to face the same questions at different venues over the past month might have been just as difficult for the former New Zealand captain

At one point Fleming was angry, but then he realised neither he nor MS Dhoni, the Supergiants captain, could do anything more than ask their players to simply compete.

Four of the first-choice overseas players returned home injured within the first three weeks of the tournament. Last week Tamil Nadu legspinner M Ashwin was declared unfit due to a side strain. Add to that the absence of a home base, after the Bombay High Court moved matches scheduled for May out of Maharashtra. Home games are not just about the comfort factor, but familiarity with conditions and crowd support are often advantages for teams in the race for the playoffs.

On the eve of the match against Kolkata Knight Riders, Fleming called Supergiants' position "unusual" and "uncertain".

"We just couldn't quite get across the line," he said. "That little bit of confidence, being able to be a bit settled. Those would have been nice things to have. But, look, (that is) not to be. We can only talk about what could have been. It is unusual. It is disappointing for all concerned. We just haven't been able to win the key moments. We have taken all top teams to the last over, last ball. We have just come up short. Not down and out, but just disappointed that we couldn't turn things our way."

A loss to Knight Riders would erase Supergiants' remote mathematical chance of a playoff spot and once things move into the post-mortem stage, Dhoni's leadership is bound to be scrutinised. His relations with lead spinner R Ashwin, who has struggled for form, is already a talking point this season, given that the offspinner has not bowled his full quota in five out of eleven matches.

At Chennai Super Kings, Ashwin was one of the biggest weapons for Dhoni, and could be brought on at any stage of the innings. When Ashwin failed, Dhoni could rely on other match-winners like Suresh Raina, Dwayne Bravo, and Brendon McCullum in 2014 and 2015. Those three players are now the core of the second new IPL franchise, Gujarat Lions.

According Fleming, Dhoni has always led settled units, both at India and Super Kings. With Supergiants, on the other hand, he has had to deal with depleted resources and a new set of players who need to time to bond.

"When you are a captain who is looking to get everything out of your team, you push very hard. That is not something MS has had to do a lot," Fleming said. "He has had a very settled Indian side. He had a very settled Chennai Super Kings side. So this has been a good challenge in some ways that we have enjoyed, but again we are disappointed that we haven't been able to get the results we would have liked."

That his team was still competitive was down to the bench strength and that was a positive, Fleming said.

"We have been able to compete and we have good bench strength. Whilst we didn't get across the line, the performances and the competitiveness of the team stay the same. That is a positive. That is something we are looking to take forward to next year. A few tweaks here and there and a little bit of fortune, then, may be, we are a team on top of the table and not bottom."