Sunday, 22 May 2022
A horrifying season for Sunrisers Hyderabad ends with a defeat against Punjab Kings. Leading from front, Liam Livingstone provided yet another powerful innings so Punjab Kings can finish the season on a high.
Sunrisers could only manage 157 runs for seven wickets on a pitch favored to batsmen. In response, Punjab took only 15.1 overs to hunt down the small target. Liam Livingstone scored an unbeaten 49 off 22 balls with the help of five sixes and also hit one thousandth six of the tournament with his last one.
Shikhar Dhawan scored 39 runs in 32 balls and Jitesh Sharma scored 19 runs in 7 balls. Jonny Bairstow scored 23 runs in 15 balls and put Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Washington Sundar under pressure as soon as they came. Sunrisers’ fielding was also very poor and a simple catch of Livingstone was dropped by Sundar in point off Jagdish Suchit. Punjab has never reached the playoffs since playing the final in 2014. Punjab finished sixth and Sunrisers eighth this season.
The four qualifier teams had been decided, so the match was just a dead rubber. The Sunrisers team looked very tired and the lack of motivation among the players was clearly visible.
The season’s best batsman for Sunrisers Abhishek Sharma once again got off to a good start but could not convert it into a big innings. He scored 43 runs in 32 balls.
Tripathi completed 400 runs in this session but returned to the pavilion after scoring 20 runs. Romario Shepherd scored an unbeaten 26 off 15 balls and Washington Sundar made 25 off 19 balls to take Sunrisers past 150.