It’s now famously referred to as the Ball of the Century, the Gatting Ball, or simply… The Ball. It’s also without doubt the most viewed piece of Ashes vision in the contest’s history, and the best known single delivery in cricket.
Shane Warne – the uppity blond-tipped leg-spinner from Down Under – had played only 11 Test matches and had a rather ordinary bowling average of 30.80. In his first ever appearance in England, not much was expected from the Victorian tweaker. England was in a comfortable position in the first Test of the series at Old Trafford, having sent the Aussies in and bowled them out for 289, then reaching 71 before the first fall of wicket on day two.
England’s first drop, Mike Gatting, walked to the crease and, despite being known as a classy player against spin bowling, Australian captain Allan Border threw the ball to Warne. With his first ever Test delivery against England, Warne came from over-the-wicket and pitched the ball at least a foot outside Gatting’s leg stump. Gatting moved towards the pitch of it to play a forward defence, but the ball somehow spun sharply past his pads and bat, and hit the top of off stump.
Gatting could only stand there staring at where the ball had landed, which normally would have been a wide or at least missed his leg stump. With the dismissed batter in disbelief, Warne was embraced by his Aussie teammates. In 2018 Warne said: “That ball changed my life, on and off the field, completely”.
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