On this day in 1993- Shane Warne’s Ball of the Century

Shane Warne was one of the finest spinners to have played cricket. In his illustrious career that spanned for one-and-a-half decade, the leggie went on to become the second-highest wicket-taker in Tests and the second bowler after Muttiah Muralitharan to bag more than 1000 international scalps.

However, the prime focus throughout his career and post retirement always remained on the ‘Ball of the Century’ that he had bowled to Mike Gatting during his very first Ashes series. Meanwhile, it was on this very day in 1993 that Warne had delivered that famous ball which went on to be etched in cricketing history forever.

When Shane Warne bamboozled Mike Gatting with a dream delivery

It was the second day of the first Ashes Test match between England and Australia at the Old Trafford in Manchester on June 4, 1993. Making his maiden Ashes appearance and bowling his first delivery against England, Warne bowled a magical delivery that made Gatting look completely clueless.

It is to be noted that Warne was the sole spinner in Australia’s playing XI for that game as they had selected three fast bowlers. On top of that, Gatting who had the reputation of playing the spinners well was expected to dominated Warne without breaking any sweat.

Nonetheless, what happened thereafter made him realize what the young leg-spinner is capable of. The Melbourne cricketer bowled a leg-break to Gatting and by the look of it, it appeared as if the ball would go down the leg-side as the batter stretched forward and attempted a forward defence. To his surprise, the ball whizzed past his bat and went on to clip the top of off-stump.

Wicketkeeper Ian Healy who carefully followed the ball movement jumped in delight as a stunned Gatting remained unmoved. In fact, Healy had to tell him that he was out after which the batting legend took a long walk back to the pavilion.

Warne was adjudged the Player of the Match as Australia convincingly won the contest by 179 runs. He took seven wickets. The spin legend finished the series with 34 wickets as the Aussies won the five-match series 4-1.

Over the years, Warne went on to bamboozle many world-class batters with his amazing deliveries with two of them being against Andrew Strauss in the 2005/06 and 2006/07 Ashes series, but neither of them even came close to the ‘Ball of the Century’ that he had bowled in the 1993 edition.