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'Ball of the Century'

watson

watson

Banned
Shane Warne's 'Ball of the Century' turns 20 years old today;

Shane Warne's 'Ball of the Century' | Video

I must admit that this piece of nostalgia makes me feel old because I can remember watching Gatting's dismissal on TV as clear as day.

But I was also wondering whether is was the worth the hype? Have there been better, or more important singular Test match deliveries worthy of the title - 'Ball of the Century'?
 
Red

Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
It was perfect. To pitch where it did (way outside leg), then go across the face of Gatting's bat and past his pads to hit off stump. Far out.

Warne did similar things over his career, but it was the moment as well. Warne's first ball in England. Made England's best player of spin look ordinary.
 
wpdavid

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Monk said:
It was perfect. To pitch where it did (way outside leg), then go across the face of Gatting's bat and past his pads to hit off stump. Far out.

Warne did similar things over his career, but it was the moment as well. Warne's first ball in England. Made England's best player of spin look ordinary.
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Plus it was at an absolutely vital stage of the first match of the series. Aus had been bowled out relatively cheaply, England had started pretty well and looked like setting up a decent first innings lead. We knew the Aus quicks were decent, but we didn't view them as world class before the arrival of McGrath. And we'd never heard of Warne. From no-where, Aus were suddenly on top and the whole tone of the series had been set. Psychologically, it was massive, more so than any single delivery you could wish to name. Aus had a bowler who could do THAT. Before that ball, we felt that we had a chance if we got our act together better than in the previous two series. After that ball, Aus just looked out of sight.
 
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Daemon

Daemon

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Was about to post that ball to Kallis but then remembered Sreesanth's a massive douchebag and it was probably luck anyways.
 
Burgey

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wpdavid said:
Plus it was at an absolutely vital stage of the first match of the series. Aus had been bowled out relatively cheaply, England had started pretty well and looked like setting up a decent first innings lead. We knew the Aus quicks were decent, but we didn't view them as world class before the arrival of McGrath. And we'd never heard of Warne. From no-where, Aus were suddenly on top and the whole tone of the series had been set. Psychologically, it was massive, more so than any single delivery you could wish to name. Aus had a bowler who could do THAT. Before that ball, we felt that we had a chance if we got our act together better than in the previous two series. After that ball, Aus just looked out of sight.
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You didn't think Australia's quicks were world class when they'd beaten you 4-0 in 89 then pansted you here in 90-91 as well? Fmd you're a hard task master.
 
Burgey

Burgey

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I mean, we didn't have Paul Jarvis, Mark Ealham or Mark Ilott, but still.....
 
Burgey

Burgey

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Apart from anything else, it's rare a sportsman has a single instant which utterly changed their life like that ball did Warne's. If he'd taken 34 wickets in the series but his first had come in different circumstances, it would have been far less dramatic. As David said, psychologically it was enormous, and as a piece if theatre it's pretty much unsurpassable.
 
wpdavid

wpdavid

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Burgey said:
You didn't think Australia's quicks were world class when they'd beaten you 4-0 in 89 then pansted you here in 90-91 as well? Fmd you're a hard task master.
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Yeah, I know. Of course you didn't have Alderman in 1993, who'd taken over 40 wickets on each of his previous two tours. I'm trying to remember who did tour in 1993 - McDermott until he was injured, Hughes, Julian maybe? Have I forgotten anyone? No disrespect, but they weren't on the same planet as WI or even Pakistan. And I don't think even their mothers would have described them as 'world class'.

Rightly or wrongly, I viewed our batting in 1989 and 1990/91 as being as much about our failings as the qualities of your attack. They were good enough, and way better than most of the jokers who turned out for us, but we should have done better against them. That changed with the arrival of Warne and McGrath of course, by which stage we needn't have bothered turning up.
 
burr

burr

State Vice-Captain
This makes me feel sooo old, and so nostalgic.

But, as many others have said, it was all about the drift. The drift makes it. Perfect.
 
Burgey

Burgey

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Fair enough. I think by 93 McDermott was up there, certainly world class enough to trouble all the batting line ups around then. Merv was very under rated too.

Other quicks on that tour were BJ, Reiffel and Holdsworth iirc.
 
Bahnz

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
smalishah84 said:
this one is better IMO.....the way Wasim sets up Dravid and then the awesome swing.....the video quality isn't that great

Wasim Akram vs Rahul Dravid Ball of Century CRICKET - YouTube
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That was brilliant, but as a single delivery taken in isolation, it doesn't really stand out. It's the preceeding inswinger that makes it so mind-numbingly brilliant. Warne's ball, by comparison, didn't need any trickery or setup. It was exactly the ball that Gatting was expecting - a big leg-break. Regardless of whether you take it within the context of the match, the over or just leave it to stand by itself, it still stands as the greatest leg-break in the history of televised cricket.
 
kyear2

kyear2

International Coach
smalishah84 said:
this one is better IMO.....the way Wasim sets up Dravid and then the awesome swing.....the video quality isn't that great

Wasim Akram vs Rahul Dravid Ball of Century CRICKET - YouTube
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That was just bloodly amazing.

The set up was amazing (and lucky for Dravid), Holding's over to Boycott would rank up there as well I should think.

Quick question to Rob, do you have any footage of the ball that Marshall bowled to Gavaskar in '83 that knocked the bat out of his hands and onto the stumps?
 
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