Shane Warne, known as the ‘King of Spin’ and Australian spin maestro, passed away at the age of 52 in 2022. He had a golden career that saw him shatter several records in cricket and set his own. In June 1993, Warne delivered his first ball on English soil, leaving Middlesex batsman Mike Gatting dazed and bemused. This moment, also called the ‘Ball of the Century’, was scripted by Warne, then a 23-year-old, in the first Test of the Ashes series at Manchester.
Warne sent down a ‘ripper’ that castled Gatting around his legs, leaving him dazed and bemused. The legendary leg-spinner ended up with four wickets in the first innings and four in the second, for a combined haul of 8 wickets in the Test Australia won by 179 runs.
Warne passed away on March 4 after a heart attack while vacationing in Thailand. One of the most loved and followed cricketers in history, Warne single-handedly reinvented the art of leg-spin when he burst onto the international scene in the early 1990s. By the time he bid adieu to the sport in 2007, Warne had become the first bowler to collect 700 Test wickets.
Warne finished his international career with 708 Test wickets and 293 in One-Day Internationals, placing him second on the list of all-time international wicket-takers behind his great friend and rival Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka at 1,347.
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