Dhawan anchored the innings and also played the role of an aggressor.
Invited to bat first, PBKS lost skipper Mayank Agarwal for 18. It was then Bhanuka Rajapaksa joined Dhawan in the middle and the duo stitched a 110-run stand for the second wicket to put Punjab in a strong position.
In the process, Shikhar Dhawan completed his half-century off 37 balls. While Rajapaksa got out after scoring 42 off 32 balls, Dhawan held the one end firmly. The southpaw batted with more intent following his fifty, hitting boundaries regularly.
In the death overs, Liam Livingstone also produced a gem of a cameo (19 off 7 balls) but it was Dhawan who stayed till the end, returning with 88 not out off 59 balls (9 fours and 2 sixes) to take PBKS to a massive 187/4 in 20 overs.
During the course of his unbeaten knock, Dhawan also went past the 6000-run mark in the cash-rich league in his 200th IPL appearance. He is only the second batter to achieve the feat after Virat Kohli. In the same innings, the left-hander also went past the 9000-run mark in Twenty20 cricket, becoming the third Indian to achieve the feat after Kohli and India captain Rohit Sharma.
For his stunning display with the bat, Shikhar Dhawan received rich praise from the cricket fraternity on Twitter.
Here are the reactions: