The Complete Shane Warne by Ken Piesse
Old Trafford, 4 June 1993, 3.05pm. It's one of those moments in time that Australian cricket lovers will forever re-live. With his very first delivery in Ashes Tests, Shane Warne confounded hardened English professional Mike Gatting with a curving, spitting leg break that pitched outside his leg stump and hit off. Within hours it was being celebrated as the Ball of the Century, the Ball from Hell or simply "That" Ball. It was an unplayable, bewitching delivery that changed Warne's life. In 2000 in New Zealand, the extroverted, showy kid from Melbourne surpassed Dennis Lillee's famous record of 355 Test wickets, and before he finishes his career, many believe he could become the first man to conquer cricket's ultimate citadel and take 500 wickets. "The Complete Shane Warne" describes every first-class match of the champion spin bowler's career, including all Tests and one-day internationals. Detailed statistics tell the story of how Warne has intimidated batsmen all over the world with menacing, mysterious deliveries like the flipper and the zoota. "The Complete Shane Warne" is a match-by-match account of a genius at work, a cricketer who is revered around the world for giving the kiss of life to leg-spin bowling and creating new waves of support and adulation for the greatest of all games.