Thangarasu Natarajan, who made his international debut on the ongoing tour of Australia, called his first series win as “memorable and special” after India took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match T20I series.
The 29-year-old from Tamil Nadu, who had grabbed the limelights during this year’s IPL with his toe-crushing yorkers, claimed two crucial wickets in the second T20I as India defeated Australia by six wickets at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
“First series win for my country. Memorable and special,” he wrote on Twitter.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli had introduced Natarajan after Australian Australian openers Matthew Wade and D’Arcy Short going hammer and tongs on Sunday.
Natarajan didn’t disappoint as he dismissed Short in the fifth over before getting rid of Moises Henriques in the 19th over in his second spell of the match.
Impressed with Natarajan’s meteoric rise in international cricket, Australian pace great Glenn McGrath termed him as ‘find’ for India in this tour.
“Was very impressed with Natarajan. He’s definitely the find of this tour for India, hopefully he continues,” McGrath had said while commenting during the second T20I at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Natarajan had taken three wickets in the first T20I as well when India registered a 11-run win.
He made a memorable debut for the country in the third one-dayer against Australia, snapping two wickets as India notched up a morale-lifting 13-run triumph.
Picked for India’s T20 squad, Nataranjan was called up to the ODI setup as a backup for Navdeep Saini, who had complained of back spasms before the series started and went for runs in the first two ODIs.
Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya took the limelights again as he smashed two sixes in the last over to help India win the second T20I of the three-match series against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Sunday.
Shikhar Dhawan’s 52 and captain Virat Kohli’s 40 along with a 22-ball 30 from K.L. Rahul helped India bring the equation down to 14 runs needed off the last over in their chase of a target of 195.
Pandya, who had back-to-backk fours in the second last over bowled by Andrew Tye, was on strike against Daniel Sams and took two runs off the first ball. He then hit the second ball wide of long-on and cleared the boundary.