The greatest delivery of all time: Remembering Shane Warne’s ‘Ball of the Century’ to Mike Gatting

Shane Warne took an incredible 708 Test wickets over his amazing career, but none have been revered as much as his ‘Ball of the Century’ from nearly three decades ago.

Cricket fans are looking back at the miraculous delivery after the shocking news that Warne passed away in Thailand on Friday of a suspected heart attack, aged just 52.

The Australian’s tragic passing has hit the cricket and wider sporting worlds hard, with the iconic bowler such a huge character in his chosen field since making his international debut back in 1992.

It was the ‘Ball of the Century’ in 1993 that helped him become a household name, though, when he bowled Mike Gatting at Old Trafford, Manchester on the second day of the first Test of the Ashes series that year.

Warne was playing just his 12th Test match, his first Ashes Test and bowling his first Ashes ball as captain Allan Border gave him the task of making inroads after a good start to the first innings from England.

The blonde youngster’s leg spin delivery from over the wicket was drifting down leg and pitched comfortably outside Gatting’s leg stump before ripping back across the batsman and clipping his off bail.

<p lang=«en» dir=«ltr» xml:lang=«en»>#OnThisDay in 1993: Shane Warne. Mike Gatting. Ball of the Century. (ð¹ @lancscricket)pic.twitter.com/yhZS2FBWqE

The delivery was so good that Gattling looked baffled as to what had happened.

Richie Benaud on commentary seemed similarly stunned, quiet at first, before saying: ‘He’s started off with the most beautiful delivery.

‘Gatting has absolutely no idea what has happened to it … he still doesn’t know!’

Graham Gooch, the non-striker at the other end, said of Gatting: ‘He looked as though someone had just nicked his lunch.’

Warne later described the