Former Kiwi bowler O’Brien says ‘destroyer’ Sehwag scared him

Islamabad: Former New Zealand fast bowler Iain O’Brien, who played in 22 Test matches between 2005 and 2009, has said he was scared of bowling to India’s swashbuckling batsman Virender Sehwag.

O’Brien confessed he never wanted to bowl to Sehwag, as every time he bowled to him, Sehwag destroyed him. “Sehwag was the one I never wanted to bowl to. He is one of the batsmen that you want to bowl to but, you know, it’s difficult. You think to yourself that it would be great to have his wicket under my name but I don’t want to bowl to him right now!” a website quoted O’Brien, as saying. “Sehwag is the kind of guy that I still watch on Television and it makes me feel horrible! You know the feeling that you walk into an exam knowing that you aren’t completely prepared for it – that’s the kind of feeling I got when I bowled to Sehwag,” he added. “I did my best and I had some success against him but he probably had more success against me! So he scared me, which made me bowl bad balls. In a sense, he dictated to me where I could bowl to him,” he said. O’Brien further added: “I couldn’t focus or get my mind right. That was an interesting discovery as he made me bowl poorly instead of me bowling bad balls on my own. He was a tough one.” ANI