After a couple of heartbreaks, David Warner’s Sunrisers Hyderabad redeemed themselves against the Delhi Capitals, on Tuesday, in Abu Dhabi. The toss curse fell on Shreyas Iyer and he decided to bowl first against Hyderabad. I say ‘curse’ since the majority of the instances in IPL 2020 had the team losing the toss ending up winning the game. Delhi Capitals had been unbeaten in this tournament until yesterday wherein the lost the game to SRH by a margin of 15 runs. Skipper Shreyas Iyer was slapped with Rs 12 lakh fine due to slow-over rate in Abu Dhabi.
On the other hand, the Sunrisers side got their first chance to celebrate in the IPL 2020 so far. Fans rejoiced as Kane Williamson, replacing Mohammad Nabi, made his first appearance this season. While there had been talks that Williamson was just the missing link between SRH and an IPL win, it was proven right when the Blackcaps skipper made his IPL 2020 debut and scored a significant 26-ball 41 in the latter part of the innings. However, SRH’s total of 162/4 wasn’t too huge a total and pressure was on them.
Hyderabad bowling unit weaves magic
But soon Hyderabad’s bowling turned out to be top-notch as they troubled the Delhi Capitals batsmen right from the beginning of their chase. But the real win for SRH came along when left-arm pacer Thangarasu Natarajan, a treasured asset, turned into the King of yorkers and displayed visuals to remember. Twitter broke into praises for the Tamil Nadu pacer, with 3-0-18-0 ahead of the death overs, as he stunned one and all in the 18th over. Natarajan came in to bowl with DC on 119/5 and bowled 5 yorkers in his over and nailed the last one to dismiss Marcus Stoinis. Even Brett Lee couldn’t stop himself from praising the SRH pacer and wrote on his Twitter: “That’s how you bowl at the back end of an innings ! Outstanding Natarajan.”
JP Nattu: A tribute to coach Jayakumar
What was unusual about the pacer’s jersey was the name written on the back of it: “JP Nattu”. It was clear that Nattu meant Natarajan but the name JP was a tribute to his mentor former Kerala right-arm fast-bowler Govindamenon Jayakumar (popularly known as G Jayakumar). Jayakumar, a coach at the famous club Chemplast and now a coaching member of the Kerala state team headed by coach Tinu Yohanan, was the first to identify the talent that Natarajan is.
'JP Nattu': 'JP' on his jersey is a show of gratitude to his mentor Jayaprakash who first spotted his talent in tennis ball cricket. #SRHvDC #natarajan #IPL @Natarajan_91 pic.twitter.com/jRS7dcg0J7
— Santhosh Kumar (@giffy6ty) September 29, 2020
Jayakumar has also coached Murali Vijay and Ravi Ashwin and helped them improve their batting. Known to be a close associate with Sunrisers Hyderabad mentor VVS Laxman, Jayakumar helped Natarajan make it to the SRH squad for the Indian Premier League. The coach’s contribution to the Andhra Pradesh state team has also been highly praised.