Ball of the century

The Ball of the Century, also referred to as the Gatting Ball or simply The Magic Ball, is the nickname given to a delivery bowled by Australia’s Shane Warne to England’s Mike Gatting. The incident occurred on day two of the first Test of the 1993 Ashes series, which took place at Old Trafford, Manchester. On his first ball against England, Warne produced a spectacular delivery that bowled Gatting. It became recognised as being of considerable significance in not just the context of the match or series, but in cricket in general, helping to revive the neglected discipline of leg spin bowling. In 2002, the Ball of the Century was ranked 92nd in Channel 4’s list of 100 Greatest Sporting Moments in British television.

After a slow run-up of just a few paces, Warne rolled his right arm over and delivered a leg break to the right-handed Gatting. In slow-motion, it can be seen that the ball initially travels straight down the pitch towards the batsman. As it travels towards the batsman, the rapidly spinning cricket ball starts to drift to the right . The ball ends up bouncing several inches outside Gatting’s leg stump.Gatting responded by thrusting his left leg forward towards the pitch of the ball, and pushing his bat next to his pad. This was a standard tactic used most experienced batsmen, with the intention that the ball hits the pad or the bat. Since the ball lands outside the leg stump, the batsman cannot be given out LBW, and if the ball spins slightly more than expected, it will hit the bat and bounce safely to the ground.

Upon bouncing, however, the ball spun far more than expected. It passed the outside edge of Gatting’s bat, and clipped the top of his off-stump, dislodging the bails. In a memorable image, Gatting simply stared at the pitch in unbelieving amazement for several seconds, before accepting his fate and walking off the field.

Later this incident featured in Sydney Morning Herald article on the top 25 moments in Australian cricket and Cricinfo article on the Top 50 Magic Moments in Cricket .In 2002, the Ball of the Century was ranked 92nd in Channel 4’s list of 100 Greatest Sporting Moments in British television.