While Punjab Kings were thrashing the Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling, they seemed relentless and at one point looked sure to cross the 300-run mark.
Harshal Patel, the calm amidst the chaos, had other ideas.
Known for his deceptive slower ones, Harshal won over SRH fans with a four-wicket haul. He got clobbered along the way but was always in contention for wickets and weaved his magic particularly at the backend of the innings.
With Punjab already batting in 4th gear -- 53 off 0 in three overs -- he was brought in to the attack as early as the 4th over.
He was carved over the in-field over short third man for a boundary by Prabhsimran Singh before Priyansh Arya slapped the ball over the bowler's head for a six.
A wide later, Harshal got the much-needed breakthrough when Arya swung across the line and the top edge was caught by a back-peddling Nitish Reddy.
Harshal would have got his second wicket in his very next over had Abhishek Sharna held on to the catch at cover. Instead, he was clobbered for 15 runs as poor short balls were sent the cleaners by Prabhsimran and Shreyas Iyer.
Punjab were on the attack and SRH needed some more wickets. At 168 for 3 in 14 overs, someone was needed to halt their charge and SRH Skipper Pat Cummins handed the ball to Harshal to deliver the goods again.
Always a skillful customer, Harshal got his second victim when Shashank Singh shuffled across to tuck a good length ball pitch on off, only to get beaten on the inside edge and get hit on the pads. The appeal was turned down by the on-field umpire but SRH used their review rightly to get another wicket.
While his bowling partners were getting smacked and going wicketless -- save debutant Eshan Malinga who took two wickets for 45 runs -- Harshal kept searching for the wickets.
He came back to bowl the 18th over while Punjab were coasting at 205 for 4 after 17.
Harshal got lucky with his third wicket when Glenn Maxwell tried to reverse scoop a full toss, but the ball deflected off his back leg to crash into the stumps.
At this stage, with Marcus Stoinis and Iyer at the crease and 17 balls to go, Punjab were well and truly looking to breach the 250 run mark.
But that wasn't to be.
A couple of ball later, Harshal brought out his old trusted weapon -- the slower short ball -- to do the trick and it worked!
Shreyas attempted to cut a short ball on the off stump, was deceived by the lack of pace and was caught at backward point by Travis Head.
That over produced just five runs for the loss of two wickets.
This wicket was probably where the match slipped ever so slightly in SRH's favour as Punjab could muster only 12 runs in the next 9 balls.
Stoinis smashed Mohammad Shami for four sixes in the final over but 245 was not enough for Punjab in the end.
Harshal was the standout bowler in the match and only strengthened his reputation as the perennial partnership breaker with his 4-wicket haul.
He should have ideally been the player of the match, picking four wickets on a hard track and if not for his double strike at the death, SRH would have been chasing a lot more than just 246.
With this, Harshal now completes 250 T20 wickets and becomes only the third Indian pacer to achieve this milestone, after Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah.
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