Where did the Sunrisers Hyderabad lose their way?
Just eleven days ago, Sunrisers Hyderabad were looking to be mere certainties to feature in the IPL playoffs.
After two opening losses, the Sunrisers Hyderabad worked themselves back into this year's Indian Premier League (IPL) with a stunning five-game winning streak through the middle of the competition.
But a further four consecutive losses, albeit most of which by small margins, have left the side hanging on to sixth spot on the ladder with five wins and six losses.
KKR move to the 7th spot after a win in Match No. 56 of IPL 2022 🏏💯
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After a disappointing 2021 campaign, the team from Hyderabad began this year's edition of the IPL in pleasing fashion. The side clearly worked well in tandem, especially on the bowling front.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar's control upfront opening the bowling. Natarajan's death bowling, Marco Jansen's height and skiddy bounce and Umran Malik's speed created a formidable attack, which at the time was firing.
Malik's 15 tournament wickets and Natarajan's 17 sit ninth and fifth respectively in the IPL Purple Cap race in 2022. Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram and 21-year-old Abhishek Sharma led the way with the bat, all totalling more than 300 runs in this year's tournament.
Strong input across the squad culminated in five commanding victories, two of which were against sides above them on the ladder.
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Leaky Sunrisers Hyderabad give up mammoth totals
But since their last win two weeks ago (24 April), the Sunrisers Hyderabad have simply lost their way in their bowling, conceding an average of 200 runs every innings to the opposition.
They have been on the receiving end of some serious IPL heroics in the past fortnight - David Warner's thrashing innings, Glenn Maxwell's reverse sweeps, as well as Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway's destructive stand.
Sunrisers Hyderabad conceded 199/5 to the Gujarat Titans, 202/2 to the Chennai Super Kings, 207/3 against the Dehli Capitals and 192/3 to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
An injury to Natarajan has certainly not helped, given his overs have come at an average of 17.82 and an economy of 8.65 - which has clearly been offset by regularly picking up key wickets. Washington Sundar has also been hampered by an ongoing injury, forcing them to blood inexperienced bowlers at times.
Having key bowlers out has then arguably hindered the collaborative nature of the bowling lineup. Different strengths and weaknesses need to be leveraged, and different bowling combinations experimented.
Some positives to take, improvements to be made. We’ll come back strong 💪
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South African Marco Jansen has also struggled in the last two weeks, compounding the loss of Natarajan. He hasn't managed his lengths well, allowing batters to hit him through the line without worry.
His figures of 4-0-63-0 against the Titans were the worst bowling performance of IPL 2022, while against the Super Kings he also went wicketless for 38 runs.
The side is lacking a big run-getter, with Abhishek Sharma and Aiden Markram's tallies of 331 and 326 the two highest for the Sunrisers. They sit 10th and 11th in the tournament for the most runs - nothing to scoff at - but almost every other side has a more prolific run-scorer in IPL 2022.
Also on the batting front, star New Zealander Kane Williamson has seemingly found a niche groove as one of the most effective slow batters in T20 cricket. But he has been chewing up way too many balls in the Sunrisers' batting innings, with a strike rate of 96.13.
That is the worst strike rate amongst all batters in the competition who have faced 150 balls or more.
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Kane Williamson is the only batter who has faced 150+ balls at #IPL2022 to be striking at a rate of less than 100 😨
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Will the Sunrisers have another push in them to thrust themselves into play-offs contention?