The playoff hopes of both former champions Sunrisers Hyderabad and Punjab Kings are over. Now both the teams would like to end their journey with a win in the current season of the Indian Premier League (IPL-2022) in the last match against each other on Sunday. Both the teams were out of the race for the playoffs when Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeated top-runners Gujarat Titans on Thursday.
Sunrisers Hyderabad will be without their captain Kane Williamson who has returned to New Zealand for the birth of their second child. In his absence, either Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Nicholas Pooran is expected to take over the captaincy in the final league match of the season. Sunrisers Hyderabad broke their five-match losing streak in a close three-run victory over Mumbai Indians while Punjab Kings suffered a 17-run loss to Delhi Capitals.
If we talk about the performance of Mayank Agarwal's team, then it was quite uninterrupted in which the team could not win 2 matches in a row. After defeating RCB by 54 runs, Punjab lost to Delhi Capitals in a 'do or die' match due to the collapse of the batting order. The performance of Punjab's batting unit was not consistent. If they want to score big or defend big scores, then they have to perform together.
If Punjab's star batsmen Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone, Shikhar Dhawan are unable to walk, then it is Jitesh Sharma who can reach the big score or finish the match. In the bowling department, fast bowler Kagiso Rabada (22) is among the highest wicket-takers of this season. Arshdeep Singh (10) has also impressed with his ability to bowl yorkers, especially in the last overs.
Sunrisers were looking to move into the top two after winning five consecutive matches but their campaign was derailed by injuries to their main bowlers Washington Sundar and T Natarajan and the team lost five matches in a row. Captain Williamson also could not return to form.
Fast bowler Umran Malik has done well in the bowling and he would like to keep that up. Sunrisers also have Afghanistan bowler Fazlhaq Farooqui, who performed well in the last match. Bhuvneshwar and Farooqui will be hoping for another good performance while Natarajan will have to forget Tim David's offensive against himself and focus on his yorker again.
Rahul Tripathi has taken over the responsibility of batting for the Sunrisers this season. In the last match, the team made a strategic change and got the advantage. Priyam Garg was included in the team and impressed. Abhishek Sharma has also been good in pieces while Aidan Markram too has slowed down after a few good innings.
