CSK vs RR | Player Ratings - Jaydev Unadkat and Jos Buttler failures lead to Rajasthan Royals’ last-over loss to Chennai Super Kings

Ajinkya Rahane (2/10): It was just not his day! His bowling rotation was not on point and when keeping both Jaydev Unadkat and Dhawal Kulkarni to the last three overs was a bad decision because Dhoni has the knack of taking the game deep and eventually unleashing his vintage self. While that could be discounted, it is difficult to overlook his batting today. Dismissed for zero has to be held against him.

Jos Buttler (2/10): The Rajasthan Royals opener had a forgettable day for the second consecutive game running, being dismissed for six off seven balls tonight. Every team has built their core around one player, who will be the most consistent of them all, but Buttler has become very distracted after the Mankad incident. 

Sanju Samson (2/10): Samson’s innings against SRH made Gautam Gambhir tweet that he deserves to be in the Indian team for his “consistency”. Well, Samson knows the truth and he silenced Gambhir with a typical Samson innings which yielded only 8 runs off 10 balls. Samson should strive for what Gambhir says he has in abundance, but in reality, he doesn’t have.

Rahul Tripathi (5/10): Had it not been that silly dismissal, I would have actually given Tripathi a better rating today. Two wickets were down when he came out to bat, and it demanded him to stabilize proceedings. Tripathi did that confidently in the company of Steve Smith, but a leading edge ended his stay in the middle. 

Steve Smith (7/10): Waged a battle to keep the Royals in the hunt, and while his strike rate was below 100, it was fair in the sense that the team needed a CSK-like resurgence during that time. An average performance, but certainly not a bad one.

Ben Stokes (7.5/10): When Ben Stokes started picking up, CSK was the strong favourites in the game, but the English all-rounder suddenly changed the course of the game. Even when he was dismissed, Stokes had ensured that it was Royals’ game to lose. Will be unfair to blame him for the loss.

Krishnappa Gowtham (2/10): We are yet to see the Gowtham of 2018 who was capable of changing the course of the game single-handedly. Tonight, neither was he effective with the ball - which could be because of dew - nor did his batting “do any talking”. The Karnataka all-rounder needs to understand his role in the team and being the only trust-worthy Indian all-rounder in the side and he needs to deliver, at least, when the top-order fails.

Jofra Archer (8.5/10): England, don’t give a second thought, just add this man to your World Cup team and the ICC will probably give you the win tomorrow. Archer was just prolific with the ball, making it move both ways while also ensuring that the run-scoring was next to difficult. 2/17 is definitely something that he would be proud of. And even if he failed to take his side over the line, his 11-ball 22 has added some more depth in the batting line up for both RR and England.

Shreyas Gopal (7/10): With dew engulfing the Chepauk arena, it was commendable that Shreyas Gopal conceded runs at 7.67. He created a lot of problems for MS Dhoni and when the latter was trying to adjust to the pace of the wicket, Ajinkya Rahane tactically bowled Gopal to run through the overs. 

Jaydev Unadkat (3/10): Chennai Super Kings wanted to buy him, but when that was rendered impossible, MS Dhoni consoled himself in the best way possible - by hitting him for 28 runs in the last over. That summed up his performance today - Started with a lot of promise, but faded away just like that.

Dhawal Kulkarni (6/10): Firstly, my apologies to Dhawal Kulkarni that I used very harsh words while calling for his sack after his performance in the last game. The Mumbaikar destroyed all those notions with a very good spell of pace bowling in which the ball did literally everything - darted around, crossed past the batsman's outside edge and created wicket opportunities twice. But all the good work was undone in his last over in which Dhoni and Bravo collected 24 runs to give his bowling figure a disastrous look. Still, I won’t be harsh on him today.