Harpreet Brar flipped the script for Punjab Kings on Sunday with his three wickets toppling the Rajasthan Royals’ pursuit of 220 runs in the Indian Premier League 2025 contest in Jaipur.

Vaibhav Suryanvanshi was on a rampage. The 14-year-old’s range of shots had little variety, but anything up for grabs through long on and deep midwicket was duly dispatched. He had raced to 32 runs off just 12 deliveries. At the other end, Yashavi Jaiswal, befitting the role of the senior partner, was more calculated, channeling his range on either side of the wicket by piercing the infield.

The two had put together 67 runs by the time Brar was inserted for the fifth over. The horrors that Gujarat Titans faced a fortnight ago, against this same pair, at the same venue, might have started to flash for PBKS.

“We knew we needed dot balls to build a bit of pressure and break the partnership,” the Kings’ spin-bowling coach Sunil Joshi said after the match.

Brar, knowing Suryavanshi’s liking for the on-side, threw him the bait, opting for his two boundary riders at square leg and long on. The deep midwicket region was open. Suryavanshi accepted and hacked across the line. The result was an edge past short third for a boundary. Suryavanshi launched the next delivery down the ground, wide enough to tease the long on fielder but straight enough to beat him. Two boundaries off two deliveries.

In a format that leans heavily on data-backed match ups to confine players to special roles, throwing in left-arm orthodox to left-handed batters went against the modern T20 sensibility. Defying convention can hardly fit in a format that allows little margin for error. The move was braver still coming at a time when the once unsurmountable 220 was under threat of being overhauled.

But the trust in Brar was placed for a reason. Since the inception of the league in 2008, only 11 left-arm orthodox spinners have bowled at least 150 deliveries to left-handed batters. Brar was fifth in average (31.87) against the kind among this group. Only Shakib Al Hasan (23.35) and Pragyan Ojha (26.00) had an average under 30.

In his 41-game career before Sunday’s contest, Brar averaged nearly the same against lefties (33.00) and right-handed batters (33.38). Further, he had a better dismissal rate against the left-handers (23 compared to almost 26 against right-handers).

Brar has an appetite for challenge too. In 2021, he stole the show against Royal Challengers Bengaluru when he removed Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers in the same innings – his breakout performance in the IPL. The mighty Kohli, the most decorated batter in the league, has a strike rate of 110 against Brar. He’s been nabbed twice by the southpaw in seven innings.

In 2019, Ravichandran Ashwin, then captaining the franchise, had called Brar a mystery spinner when announcing his debut after the toss. While he may not be a mystery spinner, Brar reminded on Sunday what the franchise saw in him more than half-a-decade ago, and has since retained him through two cycles.

The two deliveries, floaters outside off, went for boundaries but did their job. Suryavanshi was swinging for everything, and Brar fired his third slightly fuller, slightly straighter and slightly quicker. The teenage prodigy, still tender against the guile of top-drawer cricket, went for the same shot and sliced to mid off.

“The numbers are there to see for the matchups. But they don’t prove that the bowler cannot deliver (against certain batters). The matchups will always be there and the bowlers will still come back and deliver. That was what our bowlers showed,” Joshi said.

Out of the 751 deliveries, Brar has bowled in the IPL, 728 have been stock, turning away from the right-hander, or into the left-hander. For a bowler with as little variations as Brar, the mastery lies in working with his pace and angles.

Jaiswal was not going to succumb to a reckless heave, and Brar brought the angle into play. He fired a delivery wide of off, and Jaiswal, wanting to keep the momentum, was lured in. A late adjustment to the line forced a miscue and he was caught at long off.

“We practice a lot against the left handers, (Ricky) Ponting sir has told us that a leftie can get a leftie out. I have worked on that, I knew they would come after me but I backed myself to bowl to my strengths. The way the wicket was playing and they were batting, the plan was to not give a boundary or easy balls,” Brar said after the match.

Brar again pounced on Riyan Parag’s desperation to collect his third. With 77 still needed off the last seven overs, Riyan’s 13 off 10 was not going to cut it. He had just picked a six off Azmatullah Omarzai in the previous over and was looking to shift gears.

Brar dragged his length and again fired a delivery into the right-hander, cramping him on his attempted swipe across the line and crashing his castle.

“I have been with Sunil sir for a long time, I have learned a lot, he’s taught me on how to use the crease and how to read the batter,” he added.

In a game which aggregated 438 runs and saw eight bowlers concede at more than 10 runs an over, Brar finished with three for 22 from his four overs. The spell put the noose around Royals’ scoring rate which the pacers tightened at the death.

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He had been picked 13 times each in the last two seasons, but took the field only for the fifth time this year. The performance on Sunday showed no signs of rust. His 7.91 economy this season is his best since the 2021 breakout season.

With seven wickets, he is just two shy of his best-season tally. The match-winning heroics that eventually sealed a Playoffs berth for his side will buy him further games, giving him a shot at getting a noteworthy haul this season.

“I didn’t get an opportunity at the start but cricket is a funny game, I always thought once I get an opportunity I will grab it,” said Brar.