Pat Cummins breaks Ramesh Pawar's long standing IPL record

Sunrisers Hyderabad's Australian captain Pat Cummins has broken a long-standing IPL record held by former India off-spinner Ramesh Pawar.

Pat Cummins entered the history books and broke the 16-year-old record last night at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad. He did so while leading the Sunrisers Hyderabad against Shreyas Iyer's Kolkata Knight Riders in the first IPL 2024 qualifier match. This was Hyderabad's first appearance in the knock-out rounds since the 2020 season when they had finished 3rd in the points table.

However, Pat Cummins and Co. succumbed and went inside a shell against the in-form KKR side which was playing its first game since the 11th of May. The Orange Army certainly had a better momentum than Kolkata heading into the playoffs but the table toppers eventually came out on top by 8 wickets. With that, the Knight Riders reached their first IPL final since the 2021 season.

Which Ramesh Pawar record did Pat Cummins break?

It was during the 1st innings last night in Ahmedabad that Pat Cummins broke the 16-year-old Indian Premier League record held by Ramesh Pawar. The former right-arm off-spinner, who represented the Punjab Kings and Kochi Tuskers Kerala in his IPL career, was holding the record of scoring the most runs as a lower-order batsman.

Ramesh Pawar was the player with the highest individual score while batting at number 9 or an even lower position in the knock-out rounds of IPL. While playing for Punjab Kings against the Chennai Super Kings in the 2nd semi-final of the inaugural IPL 2008 edition, Pawar scored 28* from the number 9 position.

The former India international's run tally from that position stood as the highest by any player until last night. Pat Cummins, who had to come down in the middle following a poor start by SRH batters, scored 30 important runs against the KKR.

Those 30 runs from the bat of Pat Cummins wasn't beneficial for his team but it did help him eclipse an IPL record. Having arrived at the crease after Impact player Sanvir Singh departed for a golden duck, Pat Cummins scored 30 off 24 at a strike rate of 125. It had helped SRH finish off their 1st innings at a score of 159, leaving 160 as the target.

The target was never going to pose a threat to the Kolkata Knight Riders, who chased the total down by the 14th over. Sunil Narine and Rahmanullah Gurbaz gave KKR a very good start and that was carried on by 1st down Venkatesh Iyer and captain Shreyas Iyer.

KKR were 67/2 when Shreyas came in and by the next 7 overs, he stitched a 97-run partnership with Venkatesh who scored 51 off 28. The Kolkata captain was the one who scored the winning runs of the match with a powerful six-off part-time bowler Travis Head.

Pat Cummins and SRH will now head over to Chennai for the 2nd Qualifier match as they await for their next opponents from the Eliminator tonight.

Players with the most runs from number 9 or lower position

30 - Pat Cummins v KKR: 2024
28* - Ramesh Powar v CSK: 2008
23 - Ravichandran Ashwin v MI: 2015
21* - Mohit Sharma v MI: 2015
21 - Zaheer Khan v CSK: 2011