Flashback: Shane Warne’s Ball of the century
Test cricket has produced some remarkable moments over the years, but one moment that probably dragged the art of leg spin bowling to the center stage was the late great Shane Wane’s delivery to Mike Gatting in the 1993 Manchester Test. Commonly referred to as ‘The Ball of the Century, the delivery from Warne turned viciously to leave Gatting dumbfounded at the crease.
Warne, regarded as many the greatest spin bowler of all time, played a pivotal role in reviving leg spin at the international level and his bamboozling delivery to Gatting had a big hand in it as well. A young Warne, with just 11 Tests under his belt, squared up against a solid English batting line-up and faced a stern test against some renowned players of spin bowling, especially Gatting.
The hosts won the toss and put Australia to bat first in the match. The Aussies could only muster 289 runs on the board at the expense of Mark Taylor’s gritty century. England in response to their total started off cautiously and were 71/1. With Mike Gatting new at the crease, Allan Border turned to his relatively inexperienced leggie Warne, to test the English batter’s resolve.
Warne, who was about to bowl his first delivery in Test cricket on English soil, had a bit of swagger about him as he moved forward in his stride. He dished out an innocuous delivery that seemed to be going down leg only to pitch outside Gatting’s leg stump and turn wickedly to disturb his off stump. The batter could not believe what just happened, and neither did the crowd. Gatting stared at the pitch in disbelief before taking a slow walk back to the pavillion.
The Australian leg-spinning great had arrived in England and is some style too. The then 23-year-old then went on to scalp another three wickets in the innings before snaring four English batters in the second innings to register eight wickets in the match. Australia defeated England handsomely in the Ashes Test on the back of a scintillating display of leg-spin bowling from one of their favorite sons.
