He was making his debut for the Ashes against England when his first ball landed outside leg stump and spun violently around bemused England batter Getting to clip the top of his off-bail at Old Trafford stadium.
Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne’s legendary career as a cricket bowler got off to a flying start when he bowled Mike Gatting for a duck. At the age of 52, Warne died in Koh Samui, Thailand, from a suspected heart attack.
To commemorate one of the most legendary deliveries of all time, Gatting made the comment in a 2013 interview with The Daily Mail.
Warne’s first ball pitched outside the leg-stump at Manchester’s Old Trafford ground before spinning fiercely around befuddled England batsman Getting to nick the top of the off-bail for Warne, who was making his Ashes debut.
Shane Warne’s “Ball of the Century” is worth seeing.
Having helped secure a 5-0 series sweep at Sydney in January 2007, Warne would go on to win six successive Ashes series and finish with 708 Test wickets.
A former Australian leg-spinner once said on television: “Gatting has absolutely no concept what has happened to him—and he still doesn’t know,” referring to the current situation.
Gatting told the Daily Mail that he had only seen “bits and pieces” of the man before.
“We decided to have a look at him, see what he was all about, and what he could do, but it was a stunning performance. In spite of what some people say, I never tried to lunge at a spinner. I was more concerned about being tossed around the back of my legs than I was about getting hit in the head.
“I had most of it covered and made sure it wouldn’t get around the back of my legs, but it spun swiftly as well as a long-distance. A leg break and I knew he’d cranked up the gears, but I didn’t expect the wicket to turn that much!”
“It was one of the best deliveries I’ve ever umpired,” Dickie Bird, the legendary umpire who was at the bowler’s end when Shane Warne unleashed the fabled ball, said in a statement.
“It was a stunning performance,” stated Bird. “Although it goes a long way, the key to this move was the speed with which it dipped and pitched just beyond the leg stump. Immediately following his strike, I turned to Shane and said, “Shane, you will place your name in the record books.” Isn’t that impressive?”
Then Gatting said: “If it had been some blond bloke who played in only 10 Test matches and took 27 wickets, I would have been furious at being bowled by him.
The fact that he became the greatest spinner of all time makes it less of an issue.
