T Natrajan : @SunRisers @TNCACricket.
14th Over, DC 78/3, 82 needed off 42 balls.
Pant had hit 2 sixes off the last 2 balls of Abhishek Sharma's previous over. DC were starting to accelarate, & had two of the best left hand hitters in the modern day game to do that.

SRH had an over of Rashid up their sleeve yet they decided to bowl Natrajan for an over and save Rashid's over for the final showdown. Natrajan started with a pin point yorker on the middle stump to Hetmyer but then misses the next one to Pant. The ball goes for 4lb.

The missed yorker doesn't middle with Natrajan's mind. He bowls another yorker. Pant takes a single. Natrajan then bowls one to Hetmyer, again. On the 5th ball, he tries a bouncer at Pant but was misdirected. Wide. He runs in again & bowls 2 more yorkers at Pant & Hetmyer.

That over he attempts 6 yorkers out of which 5 hit the mark. Pant tried standing a foot infront of the crease. He failed. He stood back, he failed. It was as if Natrajan knew what batsmen were trying to do & as if he had variations in his yorkers that....

..were delivered as per the stance of the batsmen. NATTU had announced his arrival that had left Delhi gasping for air. He gave away just 25 runs in 4 overs. The over & his spell meant DC took risk against the likes of Bhuvi and Rashid, which they couldn't & invariably lost.

-----
TV experts, News channels, Social Media went abuzz about Natrajan's journey since childhood on how JayParakash helped him when he had nothing or on how he made a comeback from chucking allegations & injuries.. He who was a village hero, was now a national inspiration!

As a person, He stil had a smile on his face. He loved bowling. And he bowled his heart out. It was not like this was just a one off! He was also the bowler who dismissed @imVkohli when @SunRisers played @RCBTweets in their very first match. He bowled 2 overs in...

..the death and gave away just 17 runs for 1 wicket against the likes of Kohli & Ad de Villiers. He bowled 6 off them to @ABdeVilliers17 and gave just 12 runs that included 2 boundaries. He bowled similarly against @msdhoni & @imjadeja.

But the best was yet to come. Sunrisers were ought to play MI at Sharjah (a place that has been a hell for bowlers). In the absence of Bhuvi, Nattu was asked to bowl the 17th & 19th over against likes of Pandya & Pollard. Stage was set. Batsmen were ready for the final burst.

But little did they knew about Nattu & his yorking abilities. In the 2 overs, He attempted 11 yorkers. Out of which 8 were perfectly aimed. In the process, he became the 1st to aim 20 (21 accurately) yorkers correctly in this season. Easily the best (Next is Curran bros at 7).

For a bowler who admits to suck bowling yorkers on the shoes/training cubes that are placed in front of the wickets during the training sessions, bowling or having the confidence to nail 21 yorkers on trott was inspiring bcz it proves that all a person needs is belief in himself.

So, isn't the hype worth it? Definitely, it is. Known as a death over specialist for his team Dindigul Dragons in TNPL, he has done no harm to his reputation. He who has an FC avg of 27, List A avg of 30 and avg of 25 at an ER of mere 7.35 in T20s. It was matter of time..

.. but to do it in the way Nattu has done. Needs courage, a lot of self belief and stubbornness to do it again and again despite failure. Hope he grows even more & may play for India one day.. A dream he might not have dared to dream off but is very much in reach.

& Finally, hope you all have enjoyed the thread on one of the most inspiring stories in otherwise hard 2020. Waise, 2020 hein.. khuch toh acha hona hi tha na (Something good had to happen in 2020). These young players & their growth are nothing less than goodnews 4 us.