Clog almighty Michael van Gerwen unleashed an awesome display of scoring power – but was still made to graft for dear life by Mensur Suljovic.
Marching into the fourth round of the PDC World Championship with a 4-2 win, averaging 107.66 and seasoned with a dozen 180s, MVG's numbers were impressive.
But Suljovic, whose career has been in gentle decline since he lost to Fallon Sherrock at Ally Pally three years ago, was the real hero.
When the three-times champion thumbed his nose at a match dart on bullseye, preferring to set up victory with a single 18 to leave double 16, the Austrian stepped in to take out 161 with breathtaking audacity.
“Of course I felt awful,” admitted Van Gerwen. “But if I had the chance, I would do exactly the same. It was a bit of bad luck, but I won the game, which is the most important thing.
“I had to fight hard, but it makes you hungry and hopefully I can do some more damage at this world championship.”
At one stage, Van Gerwen was on course to break his own world championship record average (114.05, set in the semi-finals six years ago) when he reeled off the first two sets at at 110.73 and 121.33.
But Suljovic, who contributed richly to the highest-quality game of the tournament to date, would not lie down and that 161 to take the fifth set was simply brilliant.
Earlier in the day, two-time champion Gary Anderson was dumped out in a shock defeat to Chris Dobey, after angering his opponents with comments made during an interval break.
Joe Cullen, Alan Soutar and Jose de Sousa all secured their places in the fourth round with victories.
