Indian left-arm pacer Thangasaru Natarajan is living his dream as he became the first Indian cricketer to make his debut in all three formats of the game during the same tour. The Tamil Nadu seamer was applauded in his maiden T20I series against Australia, where he took 6 wickets in three matches at an economy rate of 6.92 and a strike rate of just 12.00. Later, he also got the opportunity to represent the country in the crucial fourth Test game at Brisbane.
Natarajan also gathered three major wickets in the first innings of the fourth Test, including those of Marnus Labuschagne and Matthew Wade to force Australia to lose their ground. However, if there has been any problem as far as Natarajan is concerned, it is his frequency of bowling no balls.
This has caught the attention of spin legend Shane Warne who pointed it out to Fox Cricket.
Warne said that Natarajan has bowled 7 no-balls in the ongoing game that cannot be missed. Warne termed the frequency of such balls as ‘big’ and said that he sees it as ‘odd’. Australia’s highest Test wicket-taker further shared that Natarajan delivering 5 no-balls off the first delivery of an over is indeed ‘interesting’.
“Just something interesting that’s caught my eye when Natarajan was bowling, he’s bowled seven no-balls in this match and they’ve all been big ones. And five of them have been off the first ball — and they’re miles over. I found that very odd. We’ve all bowled no-balls, but five of them off the first ball of an over, it’s just interesting,” Warne told Fox Cricket.
{{/usCountry}}“Just something interesting that’s caught my eye when Natarajan was bowling, he’s bowled seven no-balls in this match and they’ve all been big ones. And five of them have been off the first ball — and they’re miles over. I found that very odd. We’ve all bowled no-balls, but five of them off the first ball of an over, it’s just interesting,” Warne told Fox Cricket.
{{/usCountry}}Warne’s this observation didn’t go well with the Indian fans as they slammed the legendary former Australian for making such a nasty judgement.
Here’re some of the reactions:
In the final session on Monday, Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill could face just 1.5 overs before the umpires decided to call for early stumps as rain played spoilsport. India need 324 runs on the final day with 10 wickets in hand.