The most widely anticipated event of Monday night almost turned out to be a non-event, but the capacity crowd at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium was happy merely to have had the chance of Mahendra Singh Dhoni bat one more time, if only for one ball.

The Chennai Super Kings skipper walked out with two deliveries left in his side’s innings to a glorious welcome of a sea of mobile flashlights from every part of the ground. There were a few gasps of disappointment when he only got a single, but the huge gathering, full of energy, passion and verve, quickly put that aside to soak in the moment.