During the 2018 IPL Qualifier 1, one of the most composed and gifted middle-order batsmen in history, Michael Hussey, jeopardised his coaching career with the Chennai Super Kings after giving the wrong advice at the wrong moment and causing legend MS Dhoni to be bowled against Rashid Khan.
When discussing the incident on the Backchat Podcast, Michael Hussey recounted the whole story.
“I was shown this split screen of Rashid Khan by the analyst the night before the big game. It basically means that he bowls his leggies with his fingers apart and his wrong’uns with them together. “Oh, this is good.” However, I’m sitting here the night before the game, wondering if I should send this out to the hitters or not. The night before the game, you don’t want to put too much on folks’ minds, so I sat and looked at it for an hour.
But I’m holding onto this because I felt that if I didn’t submit it to the batting group, I would never be able to forgive myself. For what it’s worth, I said, you might want to utilise it, or if not, just disregard it.
But what transpired next made Hussey fear that he would lose his coaching position at the team that was a second home to him and where he played cricket for six years in the IPL.
With the Super Kings at 39/3, Dhoni was batting alongside Faf du Plessis, and Wankhede was turning into a nightmare for batters.
“We were like four down for nothing the next day and Dhoni was in with Faf at the other,” Hussey narrated, describing what transpired after Dhoni prepared to face his first ball against Rashid Khan. With the opening ball, Rashid Khan bowls the wrong person. Dhoni bowled after striking against the spin during the cover drive.
“He enters, looks me in the eye, says, ‘Thanks, I’ll bat my own f***ing way,’ and takes a seat beside me. My career as a coach is over! “I sat like a stunned mullet for the remainder of the game,” Mr. Cricket recalled.
Shardul Thakur blasted three fours and scored 15 runs in five deliveries, but Faf du Plessis batted through, and CSK won by two wickets. The yellow brigade won the tournament as well as the match, and Dhoni spoke with Hussey afterwards.
“The information was fantastic, but I needed more time and a couple of net sessions to process it,” the former Australian cricket player said of Dhoni, who is a lovely guy.