After going for 17 in his first over, Natrajan gave away only six runs in his next two and bagged the wickets of Sanju Samson and Riyan Parag.
“I was very, very impressed with Natrajan’s comeback. He got hit for runs in the first over but then comeback strongly in his last three overs,” Lara told reporters.
“At one point, we thought we would be chasing 220 plus but our bowlers did well at the back end of the game and restricted them to 203 for 5,” he said.
Rajasthan Royals put up an all-round dominant display to start their IPL 2023 campaign with a 72-run thrashing of hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday.
Lara said that they lost the game in the two powerplays.
He said: “If you split the game into two halves. We lost the first powerplay with the ball in our hands. And when we had the bats in our hands, we also lost the powerplay again.
“We lost both the powerplays in drastic ways. They got 85 with the bat, and then losing two wickets in the first over set you back when you are chasing over 200.
“We will have to look into the errors and try to improve. It’s the first game we know where er are now, that’s the most important thing.
“We know where we are as a team. It came with a devastating defeat, but it’s just the beginning of the tournament and we will look to bounce back from here,” he said.