More than his illustrious Test career, Shane Warne is probably mainly remembered by many for his ball of the century that was delivered by him at Old Trafford. More than 25 years have passed since a shell shocked Mike Gatting walked back after being bamboozled by the delivery but the mystery surrounding it still leaves one and all puzzled.
The ball had pitched outside leg-stump, evaded Gatting’s defense and had gone on to hit the top of the off-stump. Gatting was left clueless and was the cricket community. Well, Warne, on his 48th birthday, has finally revealed how he delivered the magical delivery.
Warne gave the insight on his great delivery through the video uploaded by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Twitter.
On his birthday, here's @ShaneWarne reflecting on his famous ball of the century on his first ball of the 1993 Ashes against Mike Gatting. pic.twitter.com/sgeRGZU0nY
— ICC (@ICC) September 13, 2017
“The ball of the century was a fluke. It was. I never did it again in the first ball of any time. So it was a fluke, and I think it was meant to be. As a leg-spinner, you always try to bowl a perfect leg-break every ball and I managed to do it first up which was pretty, like I said was a fluke really. It sort of changed my whole life really back on the field and off the field,” he said.
It was one of those deliveries which all leg-spinners want to bowl, and I am proud that I have bowled it, especially to someone like Mike Gatting who was a fantastic player and the best player of spin in the England team and he is a good guy too. So to do that first up here in England, it was a very special moment,” he added.
Arguably, the greatest leg-spinner of all time, Warne is the second highest wicket-taker in the longest format of the game. The former Australia spinner played 145 matches, taking a huge 708 wickets at an average of 25.41. He also played 194 ODIs and took 293 wickets.