IPL 2022 Highlights SRH vs PBKS: Livingstone shines as Punjab Kings cruise to 5-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad

“Same wicket as the last game, so could be a bit sticky going into the second innings. Two changes for us, Romario Shephard and Jagadeesha Suchith are in. We would love to win this match and go up a bit in the points table.”

Jonny Bairstow, Shikhar Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Mayank Agarwal(c), Shahrukh Khan, Jitesh Sharma(w), Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis, Prerak Mankad, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh

Abhishek Sharma, Priyam Garg, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran(w), Romario Shepherd, Washington Sundar, Jagadeesha Suchith, Bhuvneshwar Kumar(c), Fazalhaq Farooqi, Umran Malik

Sunrisers Hyderabad win toss, opt to bat against Punjab Kings

As expected, Bhuvneshwar Kumar leads Sunrisers Hyderabad

The captains will soon be in the middle for the toss in the final league game of the season.

“I have got a lot of backing from the management, they used to analyze my game plan ahead of every match. The biggest motive is always to win, we didn't do well in a few games, but want to come back and do well in the next season, want to finish this season on a high”

“This is the same pitch that was used last night. It has been watered, the pitch is quite hard and 160 could be a good score. There will be a bit of help for the spinners,” says Graeme Swann.

“The biggest motivation is leading into next season, having displayed on certain occasions what we can do as a team. Whenever we have done that as a team, we have blown the opposition away.”

“Rahul Tripathi has had a phenomenal season. I was hoping he would make the Indian team (For the South Africa series),” Aakash Chopra says

Incidentally, Shikhar Dhawan had led the PBKS in their last encounter against SRH due to an injury to Mayank. Today, it's the opposite, as Williamson is unavailable for Hyderabad

In their previous encounter, the Sunrisers Hyderabad had cruised to a 7-wicket win over Punjab Kings. Umran Malik registered figures of 4/28 in the game as SRH chased down a 152-run target with 7 balls top spare.

The senior India pacer is likely to captain the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the game against Punjab Kings tonight.

While the result of the game between SRH and PBKS will have no impact on the playoffs race, the two sides will still look to finish strongly in the season. With a big win, Punjab can potentially displace KKR to finish sixth in the table. Hyderabad, meanwhile, will likely remain 8th due to their poor NRR (-0.230)

The duo of Umran Malik and T Natarajan have shared 15 bowled dismissals so far in IPL 2022.

Kagiso Rabada has 22 wickets in this season, and is four behind of the highest wicket-taker so far -- Yuzvendra Chahal.

Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Mayank Agarwal, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar, Kagiso Rabada, Sandeep Sharma, and Arshdeep Singh

Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Glenn Phillips, Nicholas Pooran (WK), Washington Sundar, Romario Shepherd, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (C), T Natarajan, Umran Malik

Despite strong reports suggesting that Dhawan would lead India against South Africa, the selection committee left the senior batter out for the three-match series.

Shikhar Dhawan has a chance to enter the top-5 in the Orange Cap race if he scores 12 more runs in the game against SRH tonight. Dhawan has scored 432 runs in the season so far.

Punjab Kings’ win rate against SRH in IPL is the lowest among all active teams with min. 10 matches played (31.50 percent).

Time to improve the record tonight?

Ishan Porel is yet to make his debut for the Punjab Kings in the ongoing edition. With Rishi Dhawan continuing to underperform for the side, will PBKS be inclined towards giving Porel a maiden cap?

Umran Malik currently has 21 wickets to his name, which is the joint-fourth highest by an uncapped bowler. Yuzvendra Chahal picked 23 wickets in the 2015 edition when he was yet to make his India debut. While Harshal Patel (32) holds the record for the same, Umran has a great chance to go third on the list.

Avesh Khan is second with 24 wickets (IPL 2021).

Rahul Tripathi will be disappointed to not make the cut in India's T20I squad despite a stellar outing in IPL 2022. Along with Tripathi, Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson is also missing from the squad.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who is likely to lead SRH in the game tonight, has been selected as India's senior-most pacer in the South Africa T20Is.