Pat Cummins takes home INR 1 Lakh even after being expensive with ball. Here's how

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) began their Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign on Wednesday in the worst possible way. They lost to the defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) by a whopping 49-run margin. While they had some of the top T20 players in the line-up, all eyes were on Australia pacer Pat Cummins who was snapped up for Rs 15.5 crore in the auction.

But the opening game didn’t turn out to be a great one for him. Rohit Sharma got stuck into him in his very first over smashing two sixes after which even the likes of Saurabh Tiwary and Hardik Pandya smacked him for boundaries. Eventually, Cummins ended up conceding 49 runs in just three overs and the KKR skipper had to change his plans for the death overs due to the same reason.

Interestingly, even after not being at his best, Pat Cummins won Rs 1 lakh after the match which has surprised many of the cricket fans. This comes after KKR lost the match too.

Pat Cummins shines with the bat

The reason for the pace bowler winning a whopping amount is his batting which came to the fore for KKR. The team was down and out only after 17 overs in their innings and were staring at a huge loss. This is when Pat Cummins came out to bat and plundered MI’s best bowler of the day, Jasprit Bumrah. The former smacked four sixes off Bumrah to leave everyone stunned.

The Aussie batsman sneaked 27 runs from the over and ended up scoring 33 off just 12 deliveries with a four and four sixes. His strike-rate of 275 was the best in the match among all batsmen. IPL post-match presentation has a special award named ‘ Super Striker of the Match’ which is given to the player with best strike-rate with the bat. And Pat Cummins was the man for the day which led to him winning Rs 1 lakh without doing much with the ball.

However, his knock was crucial for the KKR as it reduced the losing margin which could’ve been worse if not his 33 off 12 batting at eight.