Punjab Kings beat Sunrisers Hyderabad convincingly in the last group match of the IPL 2022 to finish sixth in the league. This is their fourth consecutive sixth-position finish in the IPL. This unwanted consistency will not make them happy. However, they may take some heart from the fact that several players – Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis, Liam Livingstone – stepped up in the last match. Hyderabad, on the other hand, had a forgettable match with scratchy batting performance and horrible fielding effort on the ground.
Sunrisers Hyderabad 157/8 in 20 overs
Punjab Hyderabad brought in Romario Shepherd and J. Suchith for Kane Williamson and T. Natarajan. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, leading in Williamson’s absence, won the toss and decided to bat. Punjab brought in Shahrukh Khan, Prerak Mankad and Ellis.
SRH lost their first wicket in the third over, and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Abhishek Sharma impressed again, with some powerful shots on his way to 43, with five fours and two sixes. Rahul Tripathi started well, but could make only an 18-ball 20. Both batters fell to Brar, who also dismissed Aiden Markram to finish with 3-26 in his 4 overs. He would be named Player of the Match.
Hyderabad were 96/5 in the 15th over when Markram fell, but Shepherd and Sundar then added 58 to lift them to 157/8. Shepherd remained unbeaten on a 15-ball 26, with a couple of sixes, whereas Sundar scored 25 and was dismissed in the final over. Having dismissed Nicholas Pooran earlier, Ellis picked up two wickets in the 20th over to finish with 3-40.
Punjab Kings 160/5 in 15.1 overs
Punjab got a good start again, thanks to Jonny Bairstow, who made 23 in 15 balls before Fazalhaq Farooqi bowled him in the third over, while Shahrukh made a 10-ball 19 at No. 3. Mayank Agarwal was hit on the ribs off the first ball he faced from Umran Malik. Sundar claimed him for a solitary run.
Shikhar Dhawan held one end up and again and made a handy 39 before Livingstone came out and continued his good form. Thanks to his 22-ball 49 and another cameo from Jitesh Sharma, the Kings won comfortably. Debutant Mankad hit the first ball he faced in IPL for four, which also brought up the winning runs with 29 balls to spare.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 157/8 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 43; Harpreet Brar 3-26) lost to Punjab Kings 160/5 in 15.1 overs (Liam Livingstone 49*; Fazalhaq Farooqi 2-32) by 5 wickets with 29 balls to spare. Player of the Match: Harpreet Brar.