When Gayle gets going, there are few more exhilarating sights in world cricket.

Fans of the IPL in Mohali got a ringside view to the Gayle magic on Sunday when the Jamaican turned it on in collaboration with KL Rahul to take Punjab to 197/7 before Mahendra Singh Dhoni almost took Chennai to victory. Gayle slammed 63 in 33 balls, while Dhoni hit 79 not out in 44.

“The back is pretty bad, but God has given me lot of power and I don’t need to use my back a lot. My arms can do the job. It shouldn’t be too bad because I know what happened, and when you know the extent of injury, you know how bad it really is,” said Dhoni.

The last over included three dot balls, the two wide yorkers and one occasion when Dhoni sent the ball deep but refused a run in order to hold on to the strike. That made a difference, as did a wonderful spell of three overs from Mujeeb Ur Rahman, the Afghan spinner returning 0/18.

“I think they bowled pretty well. Mujeeb was a great difference. Chris’ innings and Mujeeb’s bowling did it for them,” said Dhoni. “It was a close one, which is important, because it shows you’re competing. What are the boundaries we can omit? What are the easy deliveries that we can avoid? These are the things we need to work on.”