T Natarajan, on Saturday (April 20), once again proved his worth in T20 with an impressive spell during the match between Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
In a game where other players were taken to the cleaners, T Natarajan was a class apart. The left-arm pacer finished the game with very impressive figures of 4 for just 19 runs in his four overs. He bowled the first over from him in the powerplay after DC slipped to 81 for 2 in five overs while chasing 267.
The Tamil Nadu star made an instant impact by conceding just seven runs in the powerplay finale. In his second over, which was the eleventh over of the innings, the fast bowler gave away just five runs. He then bowled the 15th over and conceded 7 runs in that over and at the same time got his first wicket of the game.
T Natarajan’s last over was the 19th over of the innings. With DC needing 67 runs off the last two overs, the game was done and dusted. T Natarajan ended the game on a surprising note by picking up three wickets in the over without conceding any run. 4/19 are now T Natarajan’s best figures in IPL and T20.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar praises T Natarajan:
After SRH won the game by 67 runs, their paceman Bhuvneshwar Kumar praised T Natarajan. The senior pacer pointed out how T Natarajan’s performance often goes unnoticed due to the silent nature of him. Bhuvneshwar also stated that T Natarajan’s SRH teammates are well aware of his importance to the team.
“Unbelievable! A guy who stays silent most of the time gets the job done and goes unnoticed. We know how good he is with yorkers. He keeps working hard. We know how important he is to SSR for so many years,” Bhuvneshwar said.
Talking about the game, blistering knocks from Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Shahbaz Ahmed propelled SRH to a mammoth 266/7, their third 250+ total this season. In reply, DC finished their innings with 199 runs and Jake Fraser-McGurk scored a record 15-ball fifty.
T Natarajan’s performance in IPL 2024:
T Natarajan has been in good form with the ball this season. In just five matches this season, he has taken 10 wickets. With the T20 World Cup taking place in June this year, few more notable performances will definitely put him in contention for a World Cup spot.
He will be in action again on April 25 when SRH takes on Royal Challengers Bengaluru. SRH have moved up to second place in the points table with their fifth win of the season and will be looking for another win against RCB next week.