Last week, Australian Daniel Sams had an evening to forget.
Playing for Mumbai Indians, Sams was bowling to his Australian teammate and Test captain Pat Cummins of the Kolkata Knight Riders. Cummins hit a six, followed by a four and two more sixes. Sams bowled a no-ball, and Cummins rounded things off with another four and then a six. Sams conceded 35.
That put Sams third on the all-time list in terms of run conceded in the IPL, moving him ahead of the two men who had seen 33 runs go off one over.
One of them was Ravi Bopara, playing for Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) against the Knight Riders in Kolkata.
Bopra began the over to Tewatia, who stole a single to bring Chris Gayle on strike. Gayle hit each of the next four balls for sixes before Bopara conceded two wides. The first of these went for four, while the batters ran a run off the second. Tewatia scrambled another one of the last ball.
It would be another four years before another bowler conceded 33 in an over. Another Punjab player, Parvinder Awana, was bowling to Suresh Raina of Chennai Super Kings. Raina began with two sixes, and then followed that up with two successive fours. After Awana bowled a no ball, Raina hit three more consecutive fours.
However, Sams, Awana and Bopara all have to concede top spot in this undesirable list to the two men who have conceded 37 in an over, P. Parameswaran of the now defunct Kochi Tuskers Kerala (KTK) and Harshal Patel of the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Parameswaran was the first to suffer that fate in May 2011. It should be no surprise that the man doing the damage to his figures again was Gayle.
The Universe Boss hit the first ball for six, then there was a no ball, and then the sequence went 6, 4, 4, 6, 6, 4.
That record stood for nearly a decade until Harshal Patel equalled it last year. Ravindra Jadeja of Chennai did the damage, hitting four sixes, a four and a two, with a no ball thrown in for good measure.
To Harshal’s credit, he still bounced back from that hammering to win the Purple Cap that season, which should give Sams hope that his one over against Cummins need not define his IPL career.