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Top 5 Most Iconic Shane Warne Moments

Australian Leg Spinner Shane Warne
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The cricketing world suffered an irreplaceable loss on Friday, 4th of March, as legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne passed away at age 52 due to a suspected heart attack. Warne captured the hearts of the cricketing public with his spin wizardry and enigmatic charisma, and the Australian was widely considered as one of the best bowlers of all time.

Warne enjoyed a storied international career that spanned over 15 years and included 145 Tests and 194 ODIs, and in the wake of his sudden passing, we take a walk down memory lane to look back at the King of Spin’s five most iconic moments in the game.

5. IPL 2008 Glory

 

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Shane Warne came out of retirement in 2008 to partake in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League, and much to everyone’s surprise, the Australian led an underdog Rajasthan Royals team that was written off pre-tournament to the title. Warne galvanised a young group of players that included the likes of Ravindra Jadeja, Yusuf Pathan, Shane Watson and Sohail Tanvir

Rajasthan topped the group stage after winning 11 of their 14 games and narrowly edged past the Chennai Super Kings and MS Dhoni in the final in a last-ball finish. Warne himself had a stellar tournament as a bowler and captain, picking up 18 wickets at age 38, the third-most in the competition.

4. Mr. 700 

 

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Shane Warne became the first man in Test cricket to take 700 wickets when the leg-spinner dismissed Andrew Strauss in front of his home crowd in the MCG at the 2006/07 Ashes in the Boxing Day Test. Warne finished his career with 708 scalps to put him second on the all-time list and hung his boots from international cricket after the next Test in Sydney following Australia’s first 5-0 Ashes whitewash in 86 years.

3. 2005 Ashes

 

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The 2005 Ashes will be forever be remembered as one of the most iconic series in the history of the game, and Shane Warne played a starring role throughout the summer as he single-handedly kept the series alive for Australia with both bat and ball. Despite Michael Vaughan’s England taking the urn home for the first time in two decades, Warne was named as the player of the series, taking 40 wickets and scoring 249 runs across the five Tests to cement his legacy as one of the greatest to do it.

2. World Champion Warnie

 

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Warne spun Australia to victory in the famous 1999 World Cup semi-final against South Africa in Edgbaston. Defending a sub-par 213, Warne produced a match-winning spell of four for 29 as he ripped through the South African top order to help Australia win one of the most dramatic ODIs of all time. The leg-spinner also went on to pick up four more wickets in the final, thereby winning the man of the match award in the semi-final and final to give Australia their second World Cup win.

1. The Gatting Ball

 

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Shane Warne suffered an indifferent start to his Test career in 1992 with the leg-spinner taken to the cleaners by a young Sachin Tendulkar and Ravi Shastri on debut to finish with figures of 1 for 150. However, Warne eventually did announce his arrival on the international stage in the 1993 Ashes when he dismissed English batsman Mike Gatting with his first ball of the series, a delivery that is commonly referred to as the ball of the century. 

Warne left Gatting stunned with a delivery that drifted in the air, pitched outside leg before ragging viciously to knock over the top of off-stump. The legend of Shane Warne was truly born on that day in Manchester in 1993, and the rest, as they say, was history.

 

[Featured Image Credit: Bandla Ganesh]

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