June 4 marked the 29th anniversary of the famous ‘Ball of the Century’, bowled by late Aussie great Shane Warne. The leg-spinner bamboozled England's Mike Gatting with an incredible delivery, that pitched outside the leg-stump but hit the top of off-stump as Warne bowled from over the wicket. Incidentally, this was Warne's first Test delivery on English soil. On Saturday, as the famous delivery had its 29th anniversary, Cricket Australia marked the occasion with an old video of Warne recalling the ball.
Warne had passed away in March due to a heart attack while on vacation in Thailand. The cricket fraternity has since been paying its tribute to the Aussie great; recently, the players and fans remembered Warne during the first Test between England and New Zealand, as they applauded for 23 seconds after the 23rd over of NZ's first innings. Warne wore the no. 23 jersey.
In the video, Warne had recalled his meeting with Mike Gatting after the ‘Ball of the Century’.
""I don't feel sorry for Mike Gatting one bit, actually. He is a good player, a good bloke. Afterwards, we had a beer. “I said to him, 'what happened?' He said, 'I missed it'. And I said, 'It didn't really spin that far, mate! Next time, try to do it better!'” Warne hilariously recalled in the video.
{{/usCountry}}""I don't feel sorry for Mike Gatting one bit, actually. He is a good player, a good bloke. Afterwards, we had a beer. “I said to him, 'what happened?' He said, 'I missed it'. And I said, 'It didn't really spin that far, mate! Next time, try to do it better!'” Warne hilariously recalled in the video.
{{/usCountry}}The leg-spinner ended up taking four wickets in the first innings and another four in the second, thus providing Australia with a win by 179 runs in the Test.
Warne was one of the most influential cricketers in history. He almost single-handedly reinvented the art of leg-spin when he burst onto the international scene in the early 1990s, and by the time he retired from international cricket in 2007, he had become the first bowler to reach 700 Test wickets.
Warne finished his international career with 708 Test wickets and a further 293 in One-Day Internationals, placing him second in the list of all-time international wicket-takers behind his great friend and cricketing rival Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka (1,347). Shane also captained Australia in 11 One-Day Internationals, winning 10 and losing just once.