IPL 2022 / The teams that played the final last year were ranked eighth and ninth, know the condition of the four teams in the playoffs

The half-season of IPL 2022 is over and now the playoff equations seem to be clearing up. Gujarat and Hyderabad have emerged as the strongest teams of this season and both these teams are almost certain to play the playoffs. Rajasthan is a strong contender for the third place. There is a battle between Lucknow and RCB for the fourth place. At the same time, the teams of Chennai and Kolkata, who played the final last year, have reached the verge of being out of the race for the playoffs. At the same time, the condition of the other two teams reaching the playoffs in 2021 is also not good.

Delhi had the best performance in the league match last year and were at the top of the points table. This year the team is in seventh place. The road to the playoffs has become very difficult for Delhi. RCB was the fourth team to play the playoffs last year. This year, this team had a great start and was well ahead in the race for the playoffs, but after two consecutive defeats, RCB have derailed the track of victory. Currently, the team is ranked fifth and RCB will have to perform well in the coming matches to make it to the top four.

Last year the last two places were Hyderabad and Rajasthan

Apart from two new teams (Lucknow and Gujarat) this year, only Hyderabad and Rajasthan are the strong contenders to reach the playoffs. Both these teams have lost only two matches so far. Last year these two teams were in the last two places. Hyderabad had won only three matches out of 14 and finished last. At the same time, Rajasthan finished seventh after winning five matches. This season both the teams have made excellent counterattacks.

Mumbai's team missed out on reaching the playoffs last year on the basis of net run rate, but this season this team has not won a match. At the same time, the condition of Punjab remains the same. Last year also this team was at number six and this year also it remains at number six.

Balanced team formed in the auction

Last year, Hyderabad's batting was very simple. At the same time, Rajasthan team was flop with both ball and bat. Apart from captain Sanju, Rajasthan had retained Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal before the mega auction this year. The team's batting revolved around these players and bought four of the best bowlers in the mega auction. First added Ashwin and Chahal, then bought the pair of Bolt and Krishna and prepared strong bowling. That's why this team is winning.

Hyderabad's batsmen had disappointed last season and this time Hyderabad had retained captain Williamson, Abdul Samad and Umran Malik. After this, in the mega auction, the best bowlers were included in their team. There is variety in Hyderabad's bowling. This is the main reason for their success. With the departure of Rashid, the team strengthened the fast bowling and its advantage is visible. Apart from this, Sunrisers also added aggressive players with them in batting. Now these players are also scoring runs.

Emphasis on good team instead of big names

Both the teams focused on building a good team in this auction rather than big names from India or abroad. Players like Ashwin Chahal were on the verge of being dropped from Team India, but both have shined in this IPL. Bolt did not get that attention in front of Bumrah, now he is doing amazing for Rajasthan. At the same time, Krishna was doing well for Kolkata too, but Malinga has enhanced his performance. Both the teams do not have very big names, but there are T20 players who were not getting the recognition they deserved because of some other player.