With the Playoffs berths decided, there was little interest around Sunday night’s match – the last of the league stage of IPL 2022 – between Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad. As things turned out, the Punjab bowlers did an excellent job to restrict Hyderabad to 157/8, and chased down the target in 15.1 overs with five wickets in hand.
Punjab Kings
The chase summed up Punjab’s approach throughout the tournament. In the two matches before Sunday’s, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians had taken 19.4, and 19.1 overs to chase 151 and 160 against Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals respectively. Despite being up against a low target (the tournament run rate across teams stands at 8.52), Punjab never hesitated to take risks, not even after they were 71/3 in the eighth over – a situation from where only a collapse could have denied them a win.
Throughout the tournament, Punjab have started their innings at a rapid pace before running out of steam. In fact, their run rate the Powerplay overs (9.11) were the best in the league stage, but in both the middle overs and at the death – in other words, for 70% of the innings – they have failed to keep up that tempo.
Table 1: Scoring rates in IPL 2022 league stage
Team
Overall
Overs 1-6
Overs 7-16
Overs 17-20
Run rate
Rank
Run rate
Rank
Run rate
Rank
Run rate
Rank
Delhi
8.87
1
9.02
2
8.14
7
10.78
5
Rajasthan
8.82
2
8.19
3
8.30
3
11.07
3
Punjab
8.72
3
9.11
1
8.03
8
9.97
10
Lucknow
8.62
4
7.23
8
8.29
4
11.78
1
Kolkata
8.52
5
7.26
7
8.73
1
10.44
8
Hyderabad
8.42
6
7.01
10
8.51
2
10.77
6
Gujarat
8.40
7
7.67
4
7.96
9
10.68
7
Bangalore
8.35
8
7.11
9
8.19
5
11.04
4
Chennai
8.35
9
7.50
5
8.15
6
10.34
9
Mumbai
8.18
10
7.45
6
7.59
10
11.16
2
One reason behind this slump was Mayank Agarwal’s form. Agarwal scored 196 runs in the tournament at a strike rate of 123. Past halfway through the league stage, Agarwal decided to drop down the order in favour of Jonny Bairstow. While Punjab benefitted from that, Agarwal did not.
Punjab had probably backed Shikhar Dhawan to play the ‘anchor’ role in the tournament as the others would come out all guns blazing. However, Dhawan scored at 123, probably about ten fewer than what he would have liked.
Punjab Kings batters in IPL 2022
Batter
I
R
BF
R/I
BF/I
Batter
I
R
BF
R/I
BF/I
Shikhar Dhawan
14
460
375
33
27
Liam Livingstone
14
437
240
31
17
Mayank Agarwal
14
196
160
14
11
Jitesh Sharma
12
234
143
20
12
Shahrukh Khan
8
117
108
15
14
Johnny Bairstow
11
253
175
23
16
Bhanuka Rajapaksa
9
206
129
23
14
Total
36
773
643
61
52
Total
46
1130
687
97
59
Dhawan batted for 27 balls per innings – a quarter of the team innings – while scoring only 33. If Punjab had their eyes set on 200, that would have left them with a lot to score. However, they still might have got there more often, had Agarwal (and Shahrukh Khan) not struggled to get going as well. The incredible hitting of Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma, Jonny Bairstow, and Bhanuka Rajapaksa went amiss.
Had they dropped Agarwal at some point, it might have addressed the issue. They did not, probably because they wanted to back a retained cricketer whom they had identified as captain ahead of the season.
The Punjab bowling attack, identified as the weakest of the season, faced problems as well. Their economy rate (8.61) was the third-worst of the league stage.
Punjab Kings bowlers in IPL 2022
Bowler
M
B
R
W
SR
Econ
Arshdeep Singh
14
300
385
10
30
7.70
Kagiso Rabada
13
288
406
23
13
8.46
Rahul Chahar
13
280
360
14
20
7.71
Liam Livingstone
14
138
202
6
23
8.78
Sandeep Sharma
5
120
153
2
60
7.65
Rishi Dhawan
6
114
156
6
19
8.21
Vaibhav Arora
5
107
164
3
36
9.20
Harpreet Brar
5
96
146
4
24
9.13
Odean Smith
6
90
178
6
15
11.87
Nathan Ellis
2
36
55
3
12
9.17
Arshdeep, Rabada, and Chahar – their three main bowlers – had a reasonable season, but they had so little faith on the others that no other specialist bowler played more than five matches (Livingstone, Rishi Dhawan, and Odean Smith are all-rounders).
To sum up, Punjab could have backed at least one specialist bowler more than they did. They could also have been ruthless enough to drop Agarwal at some point.
Hyderabad
If Punjab has had the third-worst economy rate of the season so far, Hyderabad has the worst. In fact, they conceded 0.16 runs an over more than Mumbai Indians, the next team on the list. The gap is the largest between any two teams this season.
Worst economy rates in IPL 2022
Team
Economy
Gap with next team
Sunrisers Hyderabad
8.90
0.16
Mumbai Indians
8.74
0.13
Punjab Kings
8.61
0.01
Delhi Capitals
8.60
0.06
Rajasthan Royals
8.54
0.01
Royal Challengers Bangalore
8.53
0.09
Chennai Super Kings
8.44
0.10
Lucknow Super Giants
8.34
0.07
Gujarat Titans
8.27
0.01
Kolkata Knight Riders
8.26
Hyderabad, too, faced exactly the same problem as Punjab. They came into the tournament with a very strong group of pacers, but with a relatively thin spinner attack. J. Suchith stood up in Washington Sundar’s absence time and again, but they rotated their bowlers too often for comfort.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umran Malik played all 14 matches, while T. Natarajan played 11. Malik took 22 wickets at a strike rate of 13.4 and Natarajan 18 at 14.3, but both of them went for nine runs an over – more than what Hyderabad conceded in the tournament. In other words, two of Hyderabad’s three main bowlers were very expensive.
Hyderabad also had their batting problems, as exemplified by Table 1 above. Their Powerplay strike rate of 7.01 was the worst of the league stage, while they struck at a middling 10.77 in the death overs. That took the sheen off their excellent middle-overs strike rate of 8.51 – a number bettered only by the erratic Kolkata Knight Riders.
Part of Hyderabad’s Powerplay problems was Kane Williamson himself, who faced 18 balls per innings while scoring at less than a run a ball. This is the slowest by any opener with 200 runs in a single IPL season. In fact, Williamson’s is the only entry in the top ten since 2014.
Slowest openers in an IPL season (200 runs)
Opener
Team
Season
Strike rate
Kane Williamson
Sunrisers Hyderabad
2022
93
Graeme Smith
Rajasthan Royals
2009
98
Jacques Kallis
Royal Challengers Bangalore
2009
101
Parthiv Patel
Chennai Super Kings
2008
102
Brendon McCullum
Kolkata Knight Riders
2012
102
Gautam Gambhir
Delhi Daredevils
2009
103
Ajinkya Rahane
Rajasthan Royals
2013
107
M. Vijay
Delhi Daredevils
2014
108
Manvinder Bisla
Kolkata Knight Riders
2013
108
Tillakaratne Dilshan
Royal Challengers Bangalore
2012
109
Hyderabad had retained Williamson to lead them, but the decision to pick – and back – the captain before picking the XI hurt them more than other teams. Like Agarwal, he, too, dropped down the order – but it was too late by then.
Sunrisers Hyderabad batters in IPL 2022
Batter
I
R
BF
R/I
BF/I
Batter
I
R
BF
R/I
BF/I
Kane Williamson
13
216
231
17
18
Aiden Markram
14
381
274
27
20
Nicholas Pooran
14
306
212
22
15
Rahul Tripathi
14
413
261
30
19
Abhishek Sharma
14
426
320
30
23
Total
13
216
231
17
18
Total
56
1526
1067
109
76
Like Punjab, Hyderabad backed their captain more than they should have – a surprising move, given how prompt they were to sack David Warner in 2021. In 2023, they may want to pick the best possible XI ahead of every match instead of backing a captain irrespective of form and choosing ten from the rest.
Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor at CricketNews and co-author of Sachin and Azhar at Cape Town.
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