En route his fourth consecutive half-century this season – he had scores of 82, 51 and 67 in his last three innings – and chasing 177 runs for victory, Buttler laid into the Chennai bowlers on Friday, May 11. He smashed 11 fours and two sixes, and carried his bat, keeping Rajasthan alive in the competition.

Rajasthan were also helped by brisk cameos by Krishnappa Gowtham (13 runs off four balls) and Stuart Binny (22 off 17). They chased the target down with one ball to spare after Chennai posted 176/4 batting first.

Dhoni stressed that qualifying for the play-offs wasn’t the only target – it mattered how they won games as well. “Once you are told what to bowl, you need to be bowling to that area. They need to commit and execute. It is not the planning but the execution that goes haywire,” he said criticising his bowlers.

“It is important to start delivering when it comes to the planning part. You just don’t want to qualify into the knockout stages, you have to win games. You also need to adjust to what length to bowl and how to bowl.”