Eight great moments in the career of Shane Warne, who passed away on Friday at the age of 52.
Colombo Comeback, 1992
Mike Gatting was the miracle in Colombo before the “Ball of the Century” that actually announced Warne on the world stage. Chasing 181 for victory, Sri Lanka were cruising at 127-2 when Australia’s spinners came on. Greg Matthews took 4-37 off his last 13 balls and Warne 3-0 to win the match for Australia. Warne’s career figures in the second innings of his third Test before that spell were 1-335. From there, Warne never looked back.
West Indies Catastrophe, 1992–93
The moment most cricket fans realized the talent that had emerged. After missing the first Test of the series, Warne scored 7–52 in the second innings to guide Australia to victory against the West Indies at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The success doubled as Warne’s debut at his beloved MCG home ground, where he eventually took 56 Test wickets.
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The Getting Ball, 1993
Warne was the ultimate showman and he himself could not have written it better. With his first delivery in a Test match in England, Warne swung the ball to right-hander Mike Gatting, dipped it, pitched outside leg, had enough spin to beat the bat and clipped the top of the off-stump . Gatting’s sad face said it all.
Hat-trick, 1994-95
A month after again destroying England with figures of 8-71 in the first Test at the Gabba in Brisbane, Warne claimed his famous hat-trick at the MCG when he struck Phil Defratas, Darren Gough and Devon Malcolm for three consecutive deliveries. removed with Warne ended the series with 27 wickets.
World Cup Heroics, 1999
Three years after helping engineer a comeback to bring Australia back in the 1996 final, Warne was at it again. They won 3–3 in their first three overs of the semi-finals after South Africa were in control of 48–0 in their chase of 214, before coming back late to finish 4–29 in the famous tie. . He was then man-of-the-match in the final, taking 4–33 against Pakistan to help Australia to a one-sided victory.
Pakistan, 2002
An often forgotten example of Warne’s dominance. In one of the most one-sided series in history, Warne took 27 wickets at an average of 12.66. In doing so, he took almost half the wickets available to him in the series and helped Australia finish a Test match in Sharjah within two days.
One-Man Band, 2005
Australia’s only Ashes series defeat of Warne’s career should have been a low point, but with Glenn McGrath injured, the veteran leg-spinner really stepped up to lead the bowling attack. He took 40 wickets at 19.92 for the series, the most by an Australian in a five-match Ashes series.
700th wicket, 2006-07
Warne scripted the perfect ending by announcing that he would retire at the end of the summer for a 3–0 draw with Australia in the Ashes and 699 wickets before the MCG Boxing Day Test. In a perfect farewell, Warne bowled Andrew Strauss to become the first player to reach 700 Test wickets and help Australia complete just their second 5-0 Ashes sweep in history. He also took 1,000 international wickets across all formats of the game in farewell to the Sydney Cricket Ground.
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