As has been the case with them over the last few years, Punjab Kings were searching for balance even as they neared the halfway stage in IPL 2021. The team had dropped leg spinner Murugan Ashwin after a couple of poor performances. Under-19 find Ravi Bishnoi was doing well but the team needed another spinner, preferably a finger spinner, who could provide them control and bowl hard lengths, particularly at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad where the pitch was offering something.
In the 26th match of the competition between Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore, the team brought in young Punjab spin bowling all rounder Harpreet Brar. PBKS decided to overhaul their playing XI in the match and brought in Riley Meredith, Prabhsimran Singh and Brar in place of Moises Henriques, Arshdeep Singh and Mayank Agarwal.
Nobody really expected the impact which Harpreet went on to have. He walked out to bat in the 15th over with Punjab in trouble at 118 for five. He had a handy partnership with skipper KL Rahul and made 25 off 17 deliveries in a valuable partnership of more than 60 runs as Punjab Kings set a target of 180.
Harpreet then had one of the toughest assignments in world cricket, bowling to a batting lineup which included ViratKohli, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers. And, guess what, he dismissed all of them.
Brar uprooted ViratKohli's stumps as the Indian skipper tried to charge down the track and muscle the bowler. On the very next delivery, Glenn Maxwell was bowled for a golden duck.
In his next over, he got rid of the dangerous AB de Villiers on the first ball, caught in the ring on the offside while trying to play a lofted drive inside out.
As a result, Brar finished with magical figures of 4-1-19-3 on debut and had some of the biggest names in world cricket in his back pocket.
"I hail from Moga district. I am sure the people back home would be proud and happy. I wasn't overwhelmed when Kohli hit me because a bowler always gets a second chance to come back. My first IPL wicket was Kohli Paaji's wicket and that was very special. It came out in a flow after that, your body opens up, you get confident and things fall in place," Man of the Match Harpreet Brar said.
