[WATCH] Shane Warne produced 'ball of the century' with his first-ever Ashes delivery

Former Australian legend Shane Warne cleaned up Mike Gatting with a peach of a delivery, famously labelled as the ‘Ball of the Century’, in the first Test of the 1993 Ashes in Manchester. Warne eventually ended up claiming the Player of the Match award for his eight-wicket match haul.

Interestingly, this was Warne's first-ever delivery in an Ashes series. The delivery was bowled from over-the-wicket, and pitched outside leg stump before spinning viciously past Gatting's outside edge bat to clip the outside portion of the off stump.   

The wicketkeeper and the fielders surrounded Warne in sheer delight while the leg-spinner was chuffed with what he had produced on his very first delivery in the historic series. Gatting was the second wicket to fall in England's first innings. Australia eventually bowled England out for 210, claiming a 79-run first innings lead.

Ian Healy's unbeaten 102 off 133 and three other half-centuries meant that the tourists reached 432/5 in their second innings before declaring. No other batter other than skipper Graham Gooch contributed substantially as England fell well short in the end. Warne bowled a whopping 26 maidens in the 49 overs he bowled during the hosts' second innings.

Warne, who passed away aged 52 years in 2022, cemented his name in cricket's history. Warne picked up 708 wickets in 145 Tests and and 293 wickets in 194 ODIs and was an indispensable part of Australia's dominance in both the red-ball and white-ball formats.

He stands as second-highest wicket-taker in the history of the longest format. Amongst the plethora of awards Warne won in his playing days, one of his most significant accolades was the Player of the Match award in the final of the 1999 World Cup for his four-wicket haul (4/33 in 9 overs) against Pakistan. After retiring from international cricket, Warne was an active part of franchise cricket and the coaching space for quite some time.