Today is the anniversary of the passing of one of the great cricketers, the Australian leg-spinning allrounder Shane Warne. He played for almost fifteen years from 1992 till 2007 and left the marks on the fans, the players, and the sport. With the leg-spin, Warne revived the art of how it is bowled and learned new ways by generations of players across the globe.
As we celebrate his birthday, we go down in memory lane and decide to look at five of his most memorable Test bowling spells.
8/71 against England, Brisbane, 1994
A relatively early highlight of his cricketing career was the 8/71 which he bowled at the Gabba in a Test match during the 1994 Ashes series. Even before this, England team was facing it badly and when Warne came into the scene, it was alot worse. With great accuracy and deception for the batsman, Warne off broke the ball swerved it as much as the pitch would allow in terms of bounce and spin.
7/52 vs WI @ Melbourne, 1992
England could not contend with his wizardry and Warne’s bowling destroyed their batting line up leaving Australia with a giant victory. This spell not only indicated how he made a mess of a batting lineup but also how he was establishing himself as a force to be reckoned in Test cricket.
Key Moment: The vicious spin from outside leg to cut off Alec Stewart is one appealing picture that would always be remembered in the history of Ashes.
This spell at the fabled MCG is still considered as the epoch-making event that put Shane Warne into the global fame. It was Australia against the West Indies ; the Caribbean side that was the epitome of world cricket during the 1980’s and the early 90’s. Warne’s magical spell of 7/52 brought victory to Australian side after which they were on the backfoot for the major part of the Test match.
It was the difference in flight, turn, and aer ring that puzzled the Caribbean batsmen. Warne tied the likes of Carl Hooper and Richie Richardson in knots and scripted a great Australian victory.
Key Moment: Having Richie Richardson cleaned up with a perfectly place delivery that spun away and took the outside edge and offered the suckers in slips a chance, left fans and pundits speechless to the potentials possessed by the young leg spinner.
4/29 vs South Africa,Cape town 2002
In Shane Warne’s case, these numbers may not look very big in his given over, but it was the condition that this magnificently surpassed his other spells. The team of South Africa, which was remarkable for the strong team of batsmen, required 331 runs for the victory. In the least appealing pitch for the bowlers, Warne showed how he dominated proceedings with his spin prowess.
Through line and length clause he managed to exert pressure on the South African batsman and dreadful their top order. What Warne achieved with 4/29 was to break the back of the Indian chase and gave Australia a much needed win in the series.
Key Moment: This was so obvious especially when Warne sent back Jacques Kallis the south African cricket team hero before that happening, Warne trapped him with a flighted delivery this made Kallis edged it to the wicketkeeper thereby getting dismissed.
Australia 6/46 vs Pakistan at Sydney in 1995
The Test match against Pakistan at the SCG in 1995 is another example which shows how Warne can dictate terms of a particular game on his own. Pakistan had laid a excellent foundation for itself and seemed to be on course for taking a big lead. In came Shane Warne and then the match and the series changed for the Aussie as he took 6/46 of the Englishmen.
He resigned from captaincy, dominated Pakistan’s batsmen through his variations and then tostanishing bowled Australia to the series triumph. This was a perfect testimony of a match winning capability of Warne and how he makes it a point to come up with the best when it matters most.
Key Moment: His departing of Saeed Anwar in the crucial period of the match, that too with flipper, which went past the bat of the opener and hit the pads was crucial in overhauling the Australian team.
5/43 against England, Edgbaston,Narcy 2005
Even though this match was a failed attempt on the part of Australian cricket to earn a victory, Warne was at his best in 2005 Ashes match at Edgbaston. England had set a big total, in fact these looked bleak for the Australian cricket team. All in all, Warne bowled 5/43 and this almost single handedly put Australia back into the picture.
With an incredible amount of control, for a spinner, and bowling with his arm over, Warne just confused the English batsmen, gotten turn off an otherwise dull pitch. In particular, Watson availed of flight and permutations to rein in England’s powerful batting line-up and made the difference for Australia in what is considered one of the most exciting Test matches in history.
Key Moment: Some of the moments that stand out were his delivery to get rid of Andrew Strauss, a delivery which pitched very wide of leg stump and turned sharply to knock the top of off stump. Well, that ball has since then entered the abbreviated hall of shame as a memorable delivery in the ashes series.
Conclusion
Shane Warne made a lot more than 522 test wickets for the cricket world, it was so much more than the mere statistics. His power with the ball to change a game, his fearlessness in delivering the big over and his sheer skill at handling the ball are some of the scores that shall be remembered for many years. Warne was not only a wonderful cricketer, but he was an entertainment cricketer, at time he was a ball magician and an invaluable brand of cricket.
In these five unforgettable spells we celebrate Shane Warne’s birthday remembering what a genius he was. His is an unassailable position amongst the games all time greats and very few will ever be able to erase his memory from cricket.
What was the best bowling spell of Shane Warne ?
It’s 8/71 against England, Brisbane, 1994
