Dale Steyn has not just been a legend of the game, but even a nightmare for several respected batsmen. The South African speedster has emerged as a modern day bowling great and very few batsmen have been able to escape unscathed from Steyn’s fury. However, there is a certain batsman, who is Steyn’s nightmare. It’s none other than former Indian opener Virender Sehwag.
Sehwag and Steyn have had some fascinating fiercely fought contests in the past, where both have been completely aggressive. Sehwag was probably among the few batsmen to have dominated Steyn. Acknowledging that, Steyn recently admitted that Sehwag was the only batsman, who was his nightmare.
“In the past times that I have played here, I have bowled against guys like Virender Sehwag, that guy was a nightmare. He scored 300 in Chennai and if you missed him by a small margin, he would smoke you out,” the 32-year-old pacer in a media interaction.
Steyn also said that he had clear strategies for each opposition batsman. “It’s not rocket science, if you have got a guy like Sachin Tendulkar and you bowl a top of stump to him, he will hit you through the point, when you bowl it to Murali Vijay, he will probably hit you through the covers, so it’s important to know where you want the fielder to be positioned. The delivery stays the same, but the batsman’s shots will change,” he explained.
“So, it’s about getting into his head a little bit and looking into his last 10 dismissals. Position a fielder there and if he gets out in a similar fashion, may be laugh at him too.. Its not rocket science,” Steyn said.
However, the speed sensation also admitted that beating India at home would be a very difficult task. “I don’t think we are favourites, we are playing in India’s back garden. It’s going to be extremely difficult. I think we are coming to this series with a lot of expectations after winning the T20s and the ODIs, so we’ve got confidence on our side and ideally we would like to win, that’s what we are here for,” he said.