T Natarajan: Dreamy Australia tour brings unlikely Test debut


Indian pacer T Natarajan is having the time of his life. He was added into the Indian squad for the tour of Australia as a net bowler but got entry into the main squad courtesy an injury to Varun Chakravarthy. Once he got into the team, his quality was enough to keep him in the team.

The script was something similar for his debut in the ODIs and now also the Test as an injury-ridden India had no choice left but to field all their bowling resources at the Gabba.

Natarajan has been on the mark for all these months the team has been in Australia and he was one of the best bowlers for India who kept on troubling the Indian batsmen. He has shown signs of having a great heart needed to improve his bowling with every over and net session. 


Natarajan has had great success and moment to cherish outside the cricket field as well with the birth of his first child and the left armer enjoys his time playing with his daughter after putting all the hard yards in the nets.


His teammate gave him rounds of hugs after he was handed his India Test cap and all the smiles on his teammates’ faces established the respect he commands in the dressing room and how happy people around him are with his success.

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SMAT 2021: Abhishek Sharma, Virat Singh score centuries, Padikkal unbeaten 99 to make it left-hander's day

It wouldn't be wrong to say that today was a left hander's day in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021 as not one but four left-handers in Jharkhand's Virat Singh, Punjab's Abhishek Sharma, Karnataka's Devdutt Padikkal and Bengal's Shreevats Goswami powered their teams to victories by some memorable performances with the bat. Virat Singh, who, only at the age of 23, has toiled in first-class cricket for six years making his debut in 2014, made a brilliant 103 off 53 balls hitting 12 fours and three sixes at the Javadpur University Ground against Assam. On the back of his hundred and some quick runs by Sourabh Tiwary and Kumar Deobrat at the death, Jharkhand set an imposing target of 231 to chase for Assam. Assam team, even after some brilliant shots from the young gun Riyan Parag couldn’t quite get the chase going and managed just 187 runs from their 20 overs, losing the game by a huge margin of 51 runs. Brief Scores: Jharkhand 233-3 in 20.0 overs (Virat Singh- 103 not out, Pritam Das-2/40) beat Assam 182-7 in 20.0 (Riyan Parag- 67, Monu Kumar- 3/23) by 51 runs. Check Full Scores here In a Group A game at Alur, Karnataka, Punjab’s Abhishek Sharma hit a scintillating hundred, making 197 off 62 balls with the help of five fours and nine destructive sixes. He was supported equally well by Prabhsimran Singh who scored 63 off 39. Courtesy of these brilliant knocks, Punjab set a target of 201 for the Railways who crumbled under it like a p[ack of cards, getting bowled out for a meager 83 and losing the game quite badly by 117 runs. Brief Scores: Punjab 200-4 in 20.0 overs (Abhishek Sharma- 107, Dhrushant Soni- 2/29) beat Railways 83-10 in 17.1 overs (Pradeep Poojar-15, Harpreet Brar- 4/22) by 117 runs. Check Full Scores here In another Group A game, much-fancied and much talked about before the tournament, the Uttar Pradesh team suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of Jammu Kashmir, their third in three matches. With this loss, the north Indian team is now out of contention of making it to the Knockout rounds. Suresh Raina tested another failure as he got out leg before wicket for a duck. Brief Scores: Uttar Pradesh 124-5 in 20.0 overs (Priyam Garg-35, Mujtaba Yousuf-3/14) lost to Jammu and Kashmir 126-2 in 15.0 overs (Abdul Samad- 54 not out, Mohsin Khan- 2/17) by eight wickets. Check Full Scores here Another shocker was in-store today as another much fancied and going pretty well side of Group C, Gujarat were rocked by Himachal Pradesh in the absence of their premium batsman Priyank Panchal. It was shocking in the sense that Gujarat, which prides itself on being an all-around heavy team wasn’t able to chase 142 at the Moti Bagh ground in Baroda. Brief Scores: Himachal Pradesh 141-5 in 20.0 overs (Rishi Dhawan 43, Axar Patel- 1/16) beat Gujarat 115-10 in 19.4 overs (Piyush Chawla-39, Vaibhav Arora- 3/16) by 26 runs. Check Full Scores here In the third game of Group A, Karnataka, who were beaten comprehensively in their last game by Punjab, beat Tripura today to compensate for it. Devdutt Padikkal was the star of the day as he hit an unbeaten 99. Brief Scores: Karnataka 167-5 in 20.0 overs (Devdutt Padikkal-99 not out, Rana Dutta- 2/41) beat Tripura 157-4 in 20.0 overs (Manisankar Murasingh 61 not out, Praveen Dubey-1/20) by 10 runs. Check Full Scores here Uttarakhand, one of the new inductees in the Indian domestic set up and played Plate Group games in Ranji Trophy in 2018 shocked another heavyweight Maharashtra which has in their ranks the likes of Kedar Jadhav, Rahul Tripathi, and Ruturaj Gaikwad. The team from the Himalayas beat Tripathi’s side convincingly by five wickets, with Jay Bista, the opener playing a brilliant knock of 69 of 51 balls to see his team through. Brief Scores: Maharashtra 141-4 in 20.0 overs (Kedar Jadhav- 67, Dikshanshu Negi- 1/16) lose to Uttarakhand 145-4 in 18.1 overs (Jay Bista-69, Shamshuzama Kazi- 1/15) by six wickets. Check Full Scores here In the two dull games of the day, expected winners in Tamil Nadu and Baroda downed Odisha and Chhattisgarh respectively. They earned the wins quite convincingly. While Baroda beat the Central Indian side by nine wickets, Tamil Nadu lost one extra while chasing 133 to finally win the game by eight wickets. Lukman Meriwala continued his brilliant form with the ball for Baroda as he returned with figures of 5/8 against the Harpreet Singh led Chhattisgarh. Brief Scores: Odisha 132-9 in 20.0 overs (Suryakant Pradhan-23, Murugan Ashwin- 3/16) lose to Tamil Nadu 136-2 in 15.1 overs (Narayan Jagadeesan- 61, Pappu Roy-1/32) by eight wickets. Check Full Scores here Brief Scores: Chhattisgarh 90-10 in 17.3 overs (Shashank Chandraker-20, Lukman Meriwala- 5/8) lose to Baroda 91-1 in 12.3 overs (Kedar Devdhar-44 not out, Sourabh Majumdar- 1/12) by nine wickets. Check Full Scores here In the only evening encounter of 14th January, home team Bengal downed Hyderabad by six wickets at the Eden Gardens. Shreevats Goswami was the hero with the willow scoring 69 not out off 48 deliveries and guiding his team home even as experienced blokes like Manoj Tiwary and skipper Anustup Majumdar went early. Apart from Goswami's batting, his wicket keeping was at another level altogether in this match as he took some sensational catches, one of it might make Subroto Paul or for that matter, even Gurpreet Singh stand up and clap. Brief Scores: Hyderabad 157-10 in 20.0 overs (Tilak Varma-50, Ishan Porel- 4/24) lose to Bengal 161-4 in 18.2 overs (Sreevats Goswami-69, T Ravi Teja- 2/28) by six wickets. Check Full Scores here

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BBL10 | Match Report: Joe Burns take Heat to victory as Renegades run out of luck

It was once again a matter of luck combined with a lack of application from the Melbourne Renegades as they were beaten by a struggling Brisbane Heat at Manuka Oval Canberra in a BBL10 encounter. Experienced Joe Burns guided the Heat to the victory by scoring a 15 ball 31. With this win, the Heat have now reached fifth place in a tightly contested points table where only one point separates four teams in the middle of the table. Burns to the rescue The Heat were going well as two experienced campaigners in Chris Lynn and Joe Denly had built a 59 runs partnership timing the chase of 150 to perfection. But as soon as skipper Lynn fell to Kane Richardson, there was chaos in the Heat camp and within a span of 12 runs and 14 balls, four Brisbane batsmen had been sent back to the pavilion. Denly, Lynn, James Bazely, and Lewis Gregory, all match winners were back in the hut and the Heat still needed 33 from 23 balls with two new men in Burns and wicket-keeper batsman Jimmy Pierson at the crease. Instead of backing down to the terrific spin bowling from the Renegades, the Australian Test opener decided to take the attack to the opposition and hit Peter Hatzoglou for 12 runs in the 17th over bringing down the equation to 22 from 18. He then hit Noor Ahmed the Afghan left-arm chinaman for another 12 runs, reducing the target to 10 from 12. Eventually, he hit Kane Richardson for a four to the third man to seal the deal on the fifth ball of the 19th over. It was Burns’ 31 off 15 in which he hit four boundaries and a six that got Heat over the line in what was a tight match, albeit the scorecard unable to suggest so. Luck quotient: Lynn had plenty, 'Gades kept searching for it Luck seems to have deserted Renegades in this year's BBL as Lynn, who scored 50 off 40 balls was dropped twice, once at 22 and another time (though the ball did not reach the fielder, it was a catch nonetheless) in his 40s. If this was not enough, even after getting caught, he remained alive as the ball was declared a no-ball, not a front foot no-ball but a back foot one as Jack Prestwidge’s back foot just cut the white line of the crease. Although they tried a lot to make a match out of it, then young Hatzoglou Bowled short of length to Burns just when the pressure was mounting on the Heat in the death overs. Similar was the case at the time of the Bash Boost point. The heat needed 13 from the last over to win the Boost point, Noor Ahmed who had dropped Lynn in the last over was given the opportunity to defend it and he got swanked for a six via a damaging slog sweep by Denly, before straying down the leg to give three leg byes to fine leg and losing the Boost and a single point that the Renegades might have got. Webster gets Renegades' bowlers a total to defend Renegades, much like their previous encounters were once again found to be lacking in the batting department as after being sent to bat first by the Heat, they lost their top scorer Shaun Marsh on the very first delivery that he faced. Youngsters Mackenzie Harvey and Sam Harper tried to build a partnership, but that couldn’t last long either. Skipper Aaron Finch, who was pushed into the middle order continued his miserable run in the tournament as he went down for 13 off 13 balls. The ‘Glades were struggling at 59-4 when Beau Webster joined Jake Fraser-McGurk at the crease in the 9th over. The two then stitched together a slow but needful 58 runs from 51 balls. But just as they were thinking to accelerate Fraser-McGurk was picked by Mark Steketee in the 17th over. Prestwidge followed him as well, as not a single run was added for the next five deliveries. At that moment, Webster was joined by Imad Wasim who fed him strike at regular intervals. Utilizing the opportunity, Webster smoked 28 runs in just 12 balls to get to his much deserved fifty and also pushed the total to 149. He hit three fours and two sixes in his 40 balls 50 not out. What's next? Renegades will now travel to the MCG to play the all-important Melbourne Derby on 17th January while Heat will face the Scorchers in a fight for the Playoffs at the Docklands on 19th January.

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Daily Round up | Jan 14: Vikram Rathour hints at changes in playing XI, England in front on Day 1

India batting coach Vikram Rathour has hinted that there would be some changes in the playing XI while England have been pretty dominant against Sri Lanka on the first day of the first Test in Galle. Here’s a look at the updates from the cricketing world. Vikram Rathour talks about team changes India batting coach has hinted that there are going to be a number of changes in the side for the final game in Brisbane. Apart from this, India’s playing XI will be picked in the morning while fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah is being closely monitored. “Injuries are still being monitored. Our medical staff is working with the players. I wouldn’t be in a position to comment how it stands at the moment. “We would like to give them as much time as they can and only tomorrow morning you will know, which XI is going to play,” Rathour said on the eve of the series decider. England in charge on Day 1 England have been dominant on the first day of the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. After bundling out the home side for 135, England ended the first day at 127/2, trailing by 8 runs. Captain Joe Root was unbeaten at 66 while Jonny Bairstow had scored 47* when the stumps were called. Earlier, Dominic Bess scalped a fifer in the first innings. England did have a couple of early hiccups but Root and Bairstow held the innings together. Tim Paine urges fans to leave all abuses at Gabba's gate Australia skipper Tim Paine has urged the fans to show some respect to the players. "In terms of crowd behaviour - we don't condone the abuse of anyone; let alone from the racial standpoint. So we want people to come along to the Gabba, enjoy the game of cricket, support Australia, support India. Support the umpires if you like. But my suggestion is you leave the abuse at the gate and just respect the players, respect the game and have a good time,” Paine said in the pre-match virtual press conference. Ashwin can pick 800 Test wickets Former Sri Lanka spinner has said that R Ashwin can pick up 800 wickets in Test cricket while Nathan Lyon is good but doesn’t have the potential to achieve the same feat. “Ashwin has a chance because he is a great bowler. Other than that, I don’t think any younger bowler coming in will go to 800. Maybe Nathan Lyon is not good enough to reach it. He is close to 400 (396) but he has had to play many, many matches to get there,” Muralitharan was quoted as saying in a Michael Vaughan column for the London-based Telegraph. Ashwin has picked up 377 wickets so far from 74 matches. Batsmen day out in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy The on-going Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy saw some brilliant performances with the bat. Jharkhand’s Virat Singh scored an unbeaten 103 against Assam as his side posted 233/3 in 20 overs in Kolkata. Assam were later restricted to 182/7 as Jharkhand won by 51 runs. Karnataka’s Devdutt Padikkal who has made a good name for himself in the IPL scored 99* against Tripura. Karnataka scored 167/5 in Alur while Tripura were restricted to 157/4 to lose the game by 10 runs. Punjab’s Abhishek Sharma scored 107 against Railways in Alur as his side put 200/4 in 20 overs. Railways were bundled out for paltry 83.

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India-Australia rivalry no less than Ashes, India can breach 'fortress' Gabba: Mark Taylor

The rivalry between India and Australia has been ratcheting up in the last few years with the rise of India in overseas conditions and in the views of former Australian captain Mark Taylor, the rivalry between the two sides have scaled up new heights to challenge the rivalry of the Ashes series. In a column written for Sydney Morning Herald, Taylor opined that India have risen well as a team and beyond his expectations are challenging his country in their own backyard. However, he still termed Ashes triumph as the most ‘coveted’ trophy for the Australians. “For a sport that was once dominated by Australia and England, the rise of India as a superpower has dramatically altered the political landscape of world cricket and created another major rivalry. The Ashes urn remains the most coveted prize for Australian cricket but the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is not far behind,” Taylor wrote in his Sydney Morning Herald opinion piece. He said that the Indian teams have struggled in the past in Australia and hence he never thought they can challenge the Aussies at their home ground, but the performances in the last series and three matches of the ongoing series establish that they have become far more competitive on the Australian soil. “The importance of the series has escalated significantly in the past six years as each side has become more competitive away from home,” Taylor added. Talking about the series-decider game starting January 15 at the Gabba, which Taylor very reluctantly says a fortress of the home side, he said India have managed their resources well even after losing so many of their players due to injuries and that there is more pressure on Tim Paine and company going into the Gabba Test. Although he marked Australia as the favourite to win the Test, he did not hold back saying India have a real chance of trouncing the hosts at their most-suited ground but for that to happen, they will have to play out of their skins. “Throughout my career, I never felt India would trouble us in Australia but with one Test remaining they are still a chance to retain the trophy here and, if they play right out of their skins, win back-to-back series,” Taylor wrote further. “I have loved the way India have competed despite losing so many top-line players to injury. The pressure is right on Tim Paine and his Australian team, who have close to every advantage available to them.” He pointed out the lack of experience in the Indian bowling department as Mohammed Siraj who has the experience of two Test matches under him is set to lead the bowling attack at the Gabba. He said that the absence of Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah, who is likely to miss the series decider due to abdominal strain, is similar to Australia missing Steve Smith, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. He said that the Indians have their task cut out but it’s not insurmountable to defeat Australia and if they are able to pull it off in Brisbane, the win will go down as one of the greatest wins in the modern era of cricket. “Already weakened by the absence of captain Virat Kohli, India could well be without their first-choice pace attack if Jasprit Bumrah is out, as expected. To put that into perspective, how would Australia fare without Steve Smith, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc? Ajinkya Rahane may well be relying on a paceman playing his third Test, Mohammed Siraj, another in his second, Navdeep Saini, and a debutant to lead the charge at the pace-friendly ground. It's a mighty challenge but not insurmountable if they have the right mindset,” Taylor emphasized. “If India can get the job done in Brisbane and beat a strong Australian side close to full strength, it will go down as one of the greatest series wins in modern times.” The Indian side has had a tumultuous period in Australia with many first-choice plates returning home due to injuries in the early part of his career while some others have faced long-term injuries in the Sydney Test. Australia have not been defeated at the Gabba since 1988 and the last match between the sides on this ground resulted in a four-wicket win for the hosts in the 2014-15 series. India won the last series between the sides in Australia in 2018 and hence even a draw would enable them to retain the Border Gavaskar trophy whereas for the Australians a win at the Gabba is must to regain the trophy they last won in the 2014-15 series.