Twitter reactions: Punjab finish their campaign on a high after handing a crushing defeat to Hyderabad

Punjab and Hyderabad locked horns in the last league game of the Indian T20 League 2022 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The 2016-winners won the toss and elected to bat first in what was unfortunately a dead rubber. They had a poor start as Priyam Garg (4) was caught at mid-off by the opposition skipper Mayank Agarwal off Kagiso Rabada in the third over. Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi then stitched a partnership of 47 runs.

In the ninth over, Tripathi (20) was caught at short fine leg by Shikhar Dhawan off Harpreet Brar. Two overs later, Brar took the wicket of Sharma (43), who was caught at long-on by Liam Livingstone. On the last ball of the 13th over, Nicholas Pooran (5) was caught behind by Jitesh Sharma off Nathan Ellis. In the next over, Aiden Markram was stumped by Sharma off Brar.

At 96/5, Washington Sundar and Romario Shepherd stitched a partnership of 58 runs. The team lost three wickets in the last over which meant that they ended 157/8. For Punjab, Brar and Ellis took three wickets each while Rabada took one. In reply, the 2014-finalists had an explosive start as Jonny Bairstow and Shikhar Dhawan stitched a partnership of 28 runs in three overs. However, the Englishman missed the full ball against Fazalhaq Farooqi and thus, the stumps behind him were disturbed.

Shahrukh Khan (19) came in and played a 10-ball cameo before he was caught at mid-on by Sundar off Umran Malik in the seventh over. In the next over, Agarwal (1) was caught at deep midwicket by Jagadeesha Suchith off Sundar. However, these wickets didn’t deter the team from scoring at the pace that they liked. They maintained a run rate of around 10 per over. Dhawan and Liam Livingstone stitched a partnership of 41 runs in 4.4 overs.

Dhawan (39) became the second victim of Farooqi in the 13th over. Jitesh Sharma (19) played a cameo before he was caught at long-on by Garg off Suchith. Livingstone scored an unbeaten 49 and took the team over the line with five wickets in hand.

This is how Twitter reacted

Clearly the idea from Bairstow was to attack the new ball before the older ball starts to grip. #SRH have the bowling to win this with Suchith, Washington and the option of Markram and Abhishek.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 22, 2022

1000th six of #IPL2022 and it's only fitting that Liam Livingstone hit ithttps://t.co/xQyoN2GrI4#SRHvPBKS

— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) May 22, 2022

Washington Sundar is India’s future all-rounder across all formats: Ravi Shastri on T20 time out Cricinfo.

— Ian Raphael Bishop (@irbishi) May 22, 2022

A shame, Punjab couldn’t make it to the Playoffs this year in spite of having Livingstone in such murderous mood @liaml4893 #PBKS #PBKSVsSRH

— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) May 22, 2022

Commendable spell by @thisisbrar ? Conceding just 26 runs and bagging 3 big wickets for @PunjabKingsIPL #SRHvPBKS #IPL2022

— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) May 22, 2022

For me the biggest positive for SRH this year is the performances by Rahul Tripathi, Abhishek Sharma and not to forget Umran Malik. What’s your take? #SRHvsPBKS #IPL2022

— Amit Mishra (@MishiAmit) May 22, 2022

Runs – 49*
Balls – 22
Fours – 2
Sixes – 5

Liam Livingstone's entertaining knock guided PBKS to a thumping win over SRH in their last league game ?#LiamLivingstone #PBKS #PBKSvsSRH #IPL2022 #Cricket pic.twitter.com/XFaSFfb6PA

— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) May 22, 2022

Liam Livingstone in IPL 2022:

14 matches
437 runs
36.41 average
182.08 strike rate
4 fifties
29 fours
34 sixes
6 wickets

A Livingstone show, the monster. pic.twitter.com/fKyj0bSXp3

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) May 22, 2022

After finishing IPL 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 with 6 wins, Punjab finally finished a season with 7 wins. This is their own playoffs.? #IPL

— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) May 22, 2022

All d best for Next season #orangearmy pic.twitter.com/myWigioExC

— manish s. (@manish_737) May 22, 2022