T. Natarajan the accurate yorker man from TN village who derailed confident Delhi in IPL

Delhi Chargers captained by Shreyas Iyer enjoyed a rare stay at the top of the table with an unbeaten run till yesterday in IPL 2020.  The team seems to have the best players on its side with the right mix of young blood and old foxes and gave the impression of the team to beat this year.

All that changed in the match that Delhi played against Sun Risers Hyderabad on Tuesday by one crucial over bowled by one T. Natarajan hailing from Chinnappampatti an obscure village near Salem.  The 29 year old came in to bowl the crucial 18th over with the opposition needing a highly gettable 44 in 18 balls with an inform Australian Marcus Stoinis in the company of Axar Patel who is no mug with the bat and can hit those big sixes at will.

Natarajan kept the duo quite by bowling four accurate yorkers back to back restricting boundaries and then on the last ball trapped the dangerous Stoinis plumb in front which was the real turning point of the match.  His figures of 1 for 25 in his quota of four overs is any captain’s delight.

Rashid Khan for his threefer may have won the man of the match award for his excellent bowling but it is Natarajan about whom the experts and the fans are talking about. Aussie pace legend Brett Lee tweeted “That’s how you bowl at the back end of an innings ! Outstanding Natarajan” followed by Harsha Bhogle who raved “Absolutely brilliant from Natarajan. Best use of the yorker so far in this tournament.”  His English is said to be broken but who cares when his ball does the talking.

Natarajan has come from a humble background with his father a weaver and mother running a roadside eatery to feed five children including him. Take a look at how big a heart the 29 year old cricketer has helping out his siblings and other village cricketers through the tweets by Venkata Krishna B.

 

There is little doubt that through his sheer hard work and kind heart Natarajan has done Tamil Nadu proud and could be sporting the Indian colours soon.  Till then here is wishing him a memorable IPL 2020.