The ball of the century that launched Shane Warne's career

With a single twist of his right wrist on an early summer day at Old Trafford in 1993 Shane Warne not only bamboozled England’s batsman Mike Gatting with the so-called “Ball of the Century” but also revived the noble art of leg spin.

The bleached blond-haired Warne arrived on that tour of England relatively unknown outside Australia and with fairly unspectacular figures from his first 11 Test matches.

All that changed in an instant on the second morning of an Ashes series in which Warne took an incredible 34 wickets in Australia’s 4-1 drubbing of the hosts.

With England having made a solid start in reply to Australia’s first innings 289, captain Allan Border handed the ball to Warne.

After loosening up his arm and surveying where his fielders were positioned, Warne began his ambling run-up off no more than 10 paces at almost walking pace.

The beautifully-flighted delivery initially appeared to be heading straight but began to drift through the air towards the right-handed Gatting — a vastly experienced batsman known for his expertise against spin bowling.

The ball pitched a foot outside the line of Gatting’s leg stump and with the batsman thrusting his left pad forward with his bat angled down, it gripped in the dust.

It then spat and bounced back at a 45 degree angle, ripping past the edge of Gatting’s bat and hitting the top of off stump.

Richie Benaud, the great Australian commentator working for the BBC, seemed as bemused as Gatting as his initial reaction was as if he had witnessed just an everyday dismissal.

It was merely the opening piece of magic from a cricketing wizard who went on to take 708 Test wickets — a figure only bettered by Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan — and made leg spin bowling cool again.