Published 21:23 IST, November 19th 2019
20 Years Ago today: Shane Warne's magical leg-break bamboozles Saeed Anwar
Shane Warne's magical leg break left Saeed Anwar completely bamboozled as his leg stump was shattered during the Hobart Test match in the 1999/00 season.
Shane Warne is one of the best spinners to have represented Australia in world cricket. The former Australian leg-spinner has the second-highest number of Test scalps (708) after Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan (800). He has flummoxed the best batsmen in the business with his bag of tricks. After all, who can forget that 'Ball Of The Century' that left England's Mike Gatting clueless in the 1993 Ashes series? And if that was not enough, then the cricket fans might also be aware of an outstanding delivery that confused former English skipper Andrew Strauss and Warne was awarded his 700th Test wicket in Ashes 2007 which was also his final outing in international cricket. Apart from these dismissals, he had also bowled a magical delivery in 1999 as well.
Shane Warne leaves Saeed Anwar stunned
This was another instance of Shane Warne leaving a batsman completely bamboozled and one of Pakistan's finest batsmen Saeed Anwar was at the receiving end during the second Test between Australia and Pakistan at Hobart in the 1999/00 season. It happened during the second innings of that Test where a well-set Anwar who was batting on 78 had absolutely no answer to a magical leg-break from Shane Warne had his leg stump shattered. It was a quicker flatter ball from Warne. The video was posted by Cricket Australia on their official Twitter handle. Take a look.
Australia register a famous win
Australian skipper Steve Waugh won the toss and elected to field first as the hosts bundled out Pakistan for a mere 222. The Aussies in reply failed to perform well with the bat as they could only manage 246. Inzamam-ul-Haq's 118 in the second innings helped Pakistan reach 392 as they posted a mammoth target of 369. At 81/3 and then at 126/5, it seemed curtains down for the Aussie but riding on Justin Langer's 127 and Adam Gilchrist's unbeaten 149, Australia registered a famous win by four wickets.
Updated 22:19 IST, November 19th 2019