Punjab Kings (PBKS) managed to secure 5th position at the end of the league stage of the IPL 2022, defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 5 wickets in the 70th match of the league. And captain Mayank Agarwal pondered on what went wrong with the team in the tournament. 

PBKS had started its IPL 2022 campaign quite well under the leadership of Mayank Agarwal. However, the team lost its consistency halfway down the league and was unfortunately knocked out of the playoffs race when Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) came victorious against the Gujarat Titans (GT) last week.

Sunday’s game between SRH and PBKS had no such importance, as both teams were already out of the playoffs. However, Punjab Kings put up a good show as they restricted Hyderabad within 157 runs at the loss of 8.

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Building on good batting performances from Shikhar Dhawan (39) and Liam Livingstone (49*), PBKS took the match home with almost 5 overs remaining.

While speaking during the post-match presentation, Mayank opened up about the positives of the game they played.

“There are a lot of positives for us. The way Livingstone batted, Dhawan played well. Bairstow since the time he started to open. If we go out there and play the kind of cricket we play, we can do well in the next season,” Mayank said.

Speaking about why PBKS failed to make it to the playoffs, he said, “We couldn’t stitch two back-to-back wins. We lost wickets in a cluster, and that at times derailed us. We have played an aggressive brand of cricket overall. We are going to sit and discuss now after the IPL. We were here to get two points and we were here to enjoy ourselves.”

During the match, Mayank suffered a nasty blow as a fiery bouncer from Umran Malik hit his ribs. When asked about his condition, he replied, “It’s going to be sore, probably going for an X-ray now.”

(news18 inputs)