"If I Had Pads On..": Matthew Hayden's Scathing Assessment Of T Natarajan's Bowling

Chasing a target of 194 against SunRisers Hyderabad, Mumbai Indians' hopes had all but ended as they reached only 149/5 in 17 overs. Then T Natarajan came on to bowl, and leaked 26 runs in the 18th over. Tim David (46 off 18 balls) hit him for four sixes before getting run out on the last ball of that over. SRH won the match by three runs but were given a major scare by David's big-hitting. Natarajan bowled four full tosses and the MI batter from Singapore hit all of them for maximums.

"It was a finish where you were sweating, you were laughing, you were crying, you were swearing, it was that kind of the last few overs. (You were) up on your seats when Tim David was playing those big hits. At the same time, a little bit concerned for India because Natarajan, who has been such a fine yorker bowler, was bowling these full-tosses around the knee, which the big fella Tim David was hitting. Okay, he hit the shorter side of the boundary but he was still going so far away, it would have been a six anywhere. So, I think mixed emotions," Gavaskar said at the end of the match on Star Sports with Matthew Hayden by his side.

"If I had pads on and walked out there against Natarajan...maybe not 26, but will give you 12-13 at least. Full tosses to a giant to the small side of the ground. I mean that is like unbelievable," the former Australian cricket team player added.

Natarajan ended with figures of 4-0-60-0 in the match. He was the costliest SRH bowler. In 11 matches, the left-arm pacer has picked 18 wickets at an economy of 9.44 RPO in the IPL 2022.

Topics mentioned in this article

IPL 2022 Sunrisers Hyderabad Mumbai Indians T Natarajan Matthew Hayden Sunil Gavaskar Cricket