The charm of the IPL is not just in its fours and sixes, but also in the fact that it dissolves the boundaries between the masters and midgets of the cricket world, often spinning tales of wonder that are no less than dreams. So when a Harpreet Brar, after winning the Man of the Match award, says, “khwab jaisa lag raha hai”, we know where that comes from.

Who is Harpreet Brar? He is a 25-year-old all-rounder from Moga in Punjab, whose father is a driver with Punjab police and who was rejected four times in trials before he found an IPL team ahead of the 2019 season. Even after that, he could play only three IPL games before Friday.

But on Friday, Harpreet lived his dream. Playing his first game of the season, Harpreet, who bowls left-arm orthodox spin, grabbed the wickets of Virat Kohli (35), Glenn Maxwell (0) and AB de Villiers (3) in a space of seven balls spread over two overs to break the spine of Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Bangalore, chasing Punjab Kings’ 179/5, failed to recover from that and lost the match by 34 runs.

Harpreet’s 3/19, which included a wicket-maiden over, was well complemented by spin partner Ravi Bishnoi (2/17).

The Bangalore batsmen were guilty of wasting their Powerplay overs, scoring just 36/1 in them, and the resultant pressure unnerved them.

Questions for Kohli

Earlier, Punjab’s innings was adorned with a brilliant 91 not out off 57 balls from the bat of captain KL Rahul. Chris Gayle (46 off 24 balls) too was in the mood, while Harpreet’s 25 not out off 17 balls coming in at No.7 was a priceless cameo.

But Punjab also benefited from some odd captaincy from Kohli. He boasted of having “many bowling options” at the toss on Friday, but it was inexplicable why he wouldn’t complete the quota of Mohammed Siraj, who was bowling well, or why wouldn’t he give Shahbaz Ahmed (1/11), his best bowler of the day, more than two overs, or why Harshal Patel was asked to bowl the last over when he was thrashed for 18 runs in his previous over. Miscalculations?

Harshal gave away 22 runs in the 20th over.

Punjab plundered 60 runs off the last five overs after the Bangalore bowlers had done well to regain control of the match, taking four wickets between 11-15 overs conceding just 29 runs.

Bangalore are playing well this season — this was just their second loss — but Kohli will have to be smarter.