Michael Hussey, a former Australian batter, recently disclosed the hardest bowler he had ever encountered. The South African pace legend Dale Steyn was one of the hardest he had to deal with, and Hussey recalled an instance so terrible that he truly feared for his life.
Hussey remembers Muttiah Muralitharan and Steyn as two bowlers that caused him problems. He went on to discuss the Steyn incident, acknowledging that it was the only occasion he had really lost it while playing cricket. It happened at Kingsmead in Durban in 2009 during Australia’s second Test match against South Africa. The batters were having a hard time because of the pitch’s significant bounce, and Mitchell Johnson was causing trouble for Australia by breaking Graeme Smith’s hand and hurting Jacques Kallis.
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With centuries from Simon Katich and Phil Hughes, Australia clearly dominated the game. But the former admitted that he was having trouble surviving at the crease. Then he told about the time Steyn had requested a spell to simply kill Hussey.
“Dale Steyn called out to the captain just now. He says, “Skip it.” Give the ball to me. I don’t want to get him out. All I want is to murder him. I thought to myself, “Oh, this is going to be fun.” In fact, he simply entered the game and bowled bouncer after bouncer. And I’m turning and ducking. I got smacked on the grill. I was struck under my armpits and on my shoulder.
In fact, I could feel the blood rising through my legs. Oh crap, I’m lost here, I thought. Another bouncer passes by, as expected. I just said, Dale Steyn, and he walks down and says that.
What did you say, Michael Hussey asked? Dale Steyn, I said,” Hussey stated on The Overlap Cricket.
Michael Hussey and Steyn, meanwhile, had a fierce on-field rivalry for the whole of their careers. In Test matches, Steyn bowled Hussey 228 balls, giving up 89 runs and getting rid of him seven times. In contrast, Hussey’s average against Steyn was only 12.71.
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