Shane Warne’s ‘Ball of the Century’ is the stuff of legends. The Australian spinner could not have asked for a better start to his Test career on England soil. June 4 marks the 29th anniversary of the much-loved delivery.
Warne comes over the wicket and pitches the ball outside the leg stump. The ball was enough to deceive England batsman Mike Gatting as it hit his off-stump. on Saturday, Cricket Australia marked the occasion and released an old video of the late Australian spinner remembering the magical delivery.
“I really don’t feel sorry for Mike Gatting in the slightest. He’s a good player, a good player. Afterwards we had a beer.” I said to him, ‘What happened?’ ‘I missed it’, he said. And I said, ‘It really didn’t go that far, dude! Next time, try to do it better!'” Warne can be heard gleefully talking about the dismissal in the video.
On this day in 1993: Watch how Shane Warne bowled ‘Ball of the Century’ to stun Mike Gatting
Warne took four wickets in the first innings as Emgland was dismissed for 210 in the first Test at Old Trafford in Manchester. The leg-spinner continued his brilliant bowling in the second innings as well, taking four more wickets to help the Aussies win by 179 runs.
Overall, in the longest format of the game, Warne played 145 matches and took 708 wickets. And by the time Warne retired in 2007, he became the first cricketer to take 700 Test wickets.
In ODIs, Warne took 293 wickets in ODIs after playing 194 matches.
Warne died of a heart attack in March this year. Fans and cricketers paid tribute to the legendary spinner during the first Test match between England and New Zealand. After the 23rd over of New Zealand’s first innings, the audience applauded for 23 seconds. Warne was wearing the number 23 jersey.
In the Indian Premier League, Rajasthan Royals led by Warne won the inaugural edition of the T20 tournament in 2008.
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