In 96 Tests for England, Nasser Hussain did not have a single wicket next to his name, but his harmless legbreaks once managed to outwit one of the greatest batsmen ever – Vivian Richards.
Hussain took two first-class wickets for Essex, one of them being that of a 41-year-old Richards, in the twilight of his playing career, in 1993. Speaking about the momentous occasion on the Sky Cricket Podcast, which also featured Curtly Ambrose and Ian Bishop, Hussain explained how exactly he managed to snare the prized scalp, during a county game against Glamorgan.
“I must be the only one on here to get Viv out,” Hussain said. “Don’t know, maybe Curtly [Ambrose] and Bish [Bishop] got him out in an island game.
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“We were bowling lob ups in Cardiff, and Viv hit me into the river Taff about twenty times, and then he hit one straight back at me, very awkward height should I say, my children wouldn’t have been born if I hadn’t caught it. Viv just looked at me in absolute disdain and said, ‘I am going Nasser, don’t worry about it.'”
The freak caught-and-bowled dismissal in Glamorgan’s second innings stopped the Antiguan’s march on 29. As things go, it also turned out to be Hussain’s final first-class wicket, in Richards’ penultimate first-class game.
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“I think I was the second last person in first-class cricket to get the great Sir Vivian Richards out,” Hussain said.
