Rajasthan Royals could have escaped with a six -run victory over Chennai Super Kings in Guwahati, but they did the things much more difficult than they needed, not using their best bowling player when it mattered the most.

Jofra Archer was in his strongest on Sunday night. After two expensive outputs to start IPL 2025, with more than 100 races at 6.3 overs, Archer recovered with an excellent opening spell: 3-1-13-1, including the precious scalp of Rachin Ravindra, the best CSK batter in the first two games. It was fast, precise and looked at full control.

Why didn’t they use Rajasthan Reales Jofra Archer vs MS Dhoni?

With CSK needing 39 of 12 balls and MS Dhoni still in the fold, Archer was not delivered the ball. First came the 19 races of Tushar undande, which led to the target a very getable 20 of the last six balls. Even then, Archer was retained. On the other hand, the real ones turned to Sandeep Sharma, who had done it well in death last season, but now he faced one of the best finalists that the game has seen.

Even if beyond his best moment, Dhoni is brutal against the medium pacemakers in death and with someone like Archer in his attack, it was strange to see him not used in one of his best days.

It almost failed too. The first ball of the final was wide. The next, Dhoni was wrong and hid. A great moment that rescued RR. Jamie Overton still achieved a six later in the end, but Sandeep kept the nerve and the royal came home.

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Even so, the decision not to play Archer in death, despite his shape, rhythm and rhythm, crosses his eyebrows. Was Archer available for a finished room? It was seen deploying the penultimate ball of the final final, running quite easily. So why would RR play with someone else when the game hung in balance? We expect a response from someone in the RR camp.

“I think Sandeep Sharma has been similar to Mrs. Dhoni.

“He has been there, the death bowling player for RR for a while, he has a lot of experience. His Yorker immerses himself in the batter. It is very difficult to keep it.”

Everything said and done, it was still a great risk with a medium pacemaker to Dhoni and Jadeja when you have someone from Archer’s abilities waiting to play.

Given the story of Archer as a world -class death bowling player and his form at night, not giving him one of the last two overs against MS Dhoni, and Ravindra Jadaja felt that playing with fire. Rajasthan won, yes. But it was a call that could have easily gone.

And if Archer was completely in shape and available, RR was lucky to get his way.

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