'Ball of the Century'

[Migara]

I'd say it was more that Warne was announcing himself on the big stage, certainly it being the ashes also played a part though. Anyway it was a top delivery, obviously not the ball of the century but it was definitely a great ball.

No doubt it was a top delivery, but Warne himself has bowled much better deliveries. And who was Gatting? One of the most awful batsmen against good spin bowling. Against Murali, Warne and Kumble in their first few seasons in international cricket (91-93 period), Gatting was a walking wicket for them. Although the delivery is a top one, the batsman was a piss poor one against good spin bowling. I'd take Warne's one to Basit Ali every day of the week being better.

 

[Furball]

Nobody cares who Basit Ali is.

 

[Daemon]

Tbf to migara that ball to Basit Ali was insanely good.

 

[Cabinet96]

I don't think that Gibbs ball gets enough credit. Similar to the Gatting ball, albeit not doing quite as much, and completely changed the momentum of the match. The fact that it was the greatest ODI of all time, and a World Cup semi makes it all the more remarkable.

 

[nightprowler10]

Nobody cares who Basit Ali is.

You keep proving his point though.

 

[Red]

Terribly overrated ball to a terribly overrated player of spin. Warne cleaned up many better batsmen with absolute rippers. Best was against Basit Ali. Murali sent one to Sandagopan Ramesh, the absolute mirror image of Gatting ball, only thing was Ramesh was class above Gatting when it came to playing spin.

inb4 you can't spin it that much as an offie unless you chuck it.

 

[kyear2]

Who cares how much it turns.

Batsmens face smashed by Malcolm Marshall 1984 - YouTube

 

[centurymaker]

For once Migara wins an argument.

 

[hendrix]

The ball to get Gatting was way better than the one that bowled Basit Ali.

Huge turn is impressive and all, but that's not an unplayable delivery and has nothing special about it apart from the distance that it turned. So long as you line yourself between where it's pitching and the stumps properly and stick your leg out (not that this is that easy), you can't get out. That's not to say that it's not a good ball or well bowled, but there was no deception there. It's just great execution of a pretty simple plan.

The one that got Gatting was miles better. Drift, dip, turn. It beat him in the air and then off the pitch and was pitched so perfectly that it still took off stump.

 

[akilana]

inb4 you can't spin it that much as an offie unless you chuck it.

Don't be bitter.

 

[Hurricane]

Was Basit Ali actually good. Cricinfo doesn't list remarkable stats for him. We are saying the ball of the century isn't that great because Gatting is poor - how good was Basit Ali for those who saw him live.

 

[smash84]

Basit Ali was pretty decent actually. His career fizzled out because he seen as one of the whistle blowers on the match fixing saga of the 90s (or so is what I recall)

 

[Hurricane]

Basit Ali was pretty decent actually. His career fizzled out because he seen as one of the whistle blowers on the match fixing saga of the 90s (or so is what I recall)

Basit sounds like a good bloke.

 

[Dan]

In fairness I can understand rating the Basit Ali ball as something special. It involved Warne outsmarting a batsman - a remarkable achievement given all accounts suggest that Warne is the dumbest bloke you are ever likely to meet.

 

[uvelocity]

does anybody have a picture of basit ali that they would care to share in here

 

[Burgey]

In fairness I can understand rating the Basit Ali ball as something special. It involved Warne outsmarting a batsman - a remarkable achievement given all accounts suggest that Warne is the dumbest bloke you are ever likely to meet.

Now this is a piss take post, surely. You can't seriously question Warme's cricket smarts.

 

[smash84]

Best 8 Balls Ever Of Shane Warne - YouTube

5:00 onwards talks about the Basit Ali delivery (delivery from 5:15 onwards)

 

[Dan]

Now this is a piss take post, surely. You can't seriously question Warme's cricket smarts.

It partially was, yeah

But correct me if I'm wrong here - the set-up for that dismissal wasn't based on outsmarting him in a purely cricketing sense. The Wasim work-over of Dravid was definitely outsmarting the batsman through cricket (and Warne definitely did do similar on many occasions - Alec Stewart and the flipper being the classic example). Another method would be changing the field and outsmarting a batsman that way.

Having a discussion with Ian Healy about dinner can hardly be called "cricket smarts" (IMO at least)

 

[Hurricane]

Here is the man. Cricinfo lists his batting average as 26 - so if Smiley is right then his form must have really fallen away at the end.

Warne in the video is really talking up Basit like he is a real quality bat. I note that he didn't make it anywhere in the A-Z of CWs world XIs so maybe this was an oversight that should be rectified.

 

[Arachnodouche]

It partially was, yeah

But correct me if I'm wrong here - the set-up for that dismissal wasn't based on outsmarting him in a purely cricketing sense. The Wasim work-over of Dravid was definitely outsmarting the batsman through cricket (and Warne definitely did do similar on many occasions - Alec Stewart and the flipper being the classic example). Another method would be changing the field and outsmarting a batsman that way.

Having a discussion with Ian Healy about dinner can hardly be called "cricket smarts" (IMO at least)

It's the overall theatre that adds to the appeal of that wicket. Last ball of the day, so what do you do? Hold a mid wicket conference with your keeper, forcing the batsman to expect something out of the ordinary. One of the greatest examples of cricketing mind games I have seen.

The Gatting delivery was better simply because it didn't make such blatant use of footmarks, the drift across the pitch, and then the zipping turn back across. More variables for the batsman to face unlike the Basit dismissal where he basically did a piss poor job of kicking the ball away.