Shane Warne's first ball in Ashes cricket pitched outside leg stump and spun 18 inches to hit the top of Mike Gatting's off stump — the most famous single delivery in cricket history, announcing to the world that leg-spin was not dead.
Shane Warne had already played 11 Tests for Australia before the 1993 Ashes, taking 27 wickets. He was known in Australia but largely unknown in England. Leg-spin — considered a dying art by the early 1990s — had been absent from Test cricket at the highest level for years. Warne was 23 years old and bowling the first ball of his first Ashes over.
England were 80 for one in their first innings of the first Test at Old Trafford. Mike Gatting — a veteran batsman who had played Warne in county cricket preparation matches and had seen nothing to concern him — was on 4. Warne had the ball in hand for the first time in an Ashes Test. The rest of the world didn't know what was about to happen.
Warne ran in from the pavilion end and bowled — a huge looping leg-break that pitched well outside leg stump. Everything about the delivery said it would pass harmlessly. Gatting began to play a defensive shot to the leg side, judging the ball was going well wide. Then the ball gripped the Old Trafford pitch and turned — sharply, violently — a full 18 inches to the right. It passed Gatting's bat on the inside. It passed his pad. It hit the top of off stump.
Gatting stared at his stumps. He looked at the pitch. He looked at Warne. He could not understand what had happened. He stood for three seconds — an eternity in cricket — before turning and walking off. The England dressing room fell quiet. The Australians erupted. Richie Benaud's commentary — 'he's done it' — became one of cricket's most quoted phrases.
Warne took 4/51 in the first innings. Australia won the Test. The leg-spin revival had begun.
The delivery — pitched outside leg, turned 18 inches, hit off stump
Gatting's stunned pause at the crease — unable to process what had happened
Richie Benaud's commentary — 'he's done it, he's started with a perfect leg-break'
June 4, 1993
First Ashes Test begins at Old Trafford
England 80/1
Warne bowls his first ball in Ashes cricket to Mike Gatting
The delivery
Ball pitches outside leg, spins 18 inches, hits off stump
1993 Ashes
Warne takes 34 wickets — Australia win series 4-1
Warne went on to take 34 wickets in the 1993 Ashes, Australia won 4-1. Warne finished his career with 708 Test wickets — the most by any spinner in history, and the second-most of any bowler behind Muttiah Muralitharan. Leg-spin became fashionable again across the world.
The single most famous delivery in cricket history. The Ball of the Century did not just dismiss Mike Gatting — it revived an entire bowling discipline and announced Warne as the greatest leg-spinner the game had ever seen.
The Ball of the Century is cricket's most replayed delivery. It changed the course of bowling technique globally — coaches began teaching leg-spin again, entire academies were built around Warne's methods. A generation of leg-spinners from Anil Kumble to Yasir Shah to Adil Rashid cite 1993 as the moment that inspired them.
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