Warne, by then the finest spinner the world had ever known, had privately decided this would be his Test swansong: to reclaim the famous Urn on English soil, conjuring victory through an almost superhuman force of will and talent, capping off a glittering career of personal achievement and ruthless international dominance.īut on the final day of the final Test at the Oval, one man above all others refused to play to the script. Shane Warne had arrived.įast forward 12 years. And the first ball bowled against England by a cocky 23 year-old with look-at-me hair and pie-in-me paunch. It was the first Test of the 1993 Ashes series at Old Trafford. But as the ball pitched up from the rough it spun back implausibly, miraculously, wide of man, bat and pad, thundering into off stump. Twisting away to Mike Gatting's leg-side, the bemused England veteran instinctively thrust out his left lag and jabbed the bat against it to create what should have been an impervious shield between man and wicket. Wrist snapping as the ball tore from the young leg-spinner's hand, it swerved improbably through the air.
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