From the moment he bamboozled Mike Gatting with the ‘ball of the century’ in Manchester in 1993, Shane Warne loved playing in England. He fancied a bit of banter with the crowd and rolled over hapless English batters for fun, scripting many memorable Ashes victories. In 1999, he also inspired Australia to a World Cup win with clutch performances against South Africa and Pakistan in the semifinal and final in England.
Warne’s greatest individual efforts on England soil, though, ironically, came in a losing cause. The 2005 Ashes series was Warne’s tour de force. Dubbed the ‘greatest Ashes of all time’, the 2005 edition saw a master craftsman, nearing 36, standing tall against resurgent opponents and dragging an uncharacteristically underperforming Australian team along through sheer will and, most importantly, skill. Even though he came out on the wrong side of results by the end, every minute of it was pure theatre, and in many ways, the zenith of cricketing excellence.
A bit of background. In 2004, Warne returned from a one-year ban after failing a drug test on the eve of Australia’s ODI World Cup opener in South Africa. He made his comeback series memorable, taking 26 wickets to fashion Australia’s 3-0 win against Sri Lanka away. A few months later, he would somewhat correct his unimpressive record in India and help Australia conquer the ‘final frontier’.
Come the 2005 Ashes, the England team were on the ascendancy under Michael Vaughan. They had tied the one-day tournament final at Lord’s against Australia and were ready to unleash the exciting talent of Kevin Pietersen in the Test arena. They even had a bowling machine mimicking Warne to prepare for the leg-spinner’s wizardry.
After Australia won the first Test at Lord’s comfortably by 239 runs, it looked as if the series would follow a familiar one-way Ashes script. But on a crazy morning at Edgbaston, fortunes turned around for both teams. Glenn McGrath injured himself after stepping on a stray ball on the outfield during the pre-game warm-up and was out of the game. England piled up 407 on the first day and from then on, Australia were to play catch-up in the match, and as it turned out, the series too.
After Australia conceded a first-innings lead of 99 runs, Warne, at the fag end of day two, produced a delivery that would go on to push down all his other magical balls, except the Gatting one, and occupy the No. 2 slot in most YouTube compilations of his wickets. Warne was bowling from around the wicket. Andrew Strauss looked to pad away a ball that pitched way outside his off-stump, only to see it turning square and going behind his legs to crash into the middle and leg stumps.
Warne went on to bag five more in the innings to finish with 10 wickets for the match and kept Australia’s target to a gettable 282. But by the end of day three, he was pressed into action again. This time as a batter as Australia tottered at 137/7. He stitched a couple of handy partnerships with Michael Clarke and Brett Lee to take the visitors close to the implausible target but stepped onto his stumps off Andrew Flintoff’s bowling and was dismissed for 42. Eventually, Australia fell short by two runs and England levelled the series in a contest for the ages.
The next Test in Manchester followed a similar pattern. England, like a runaway train, notched up 444. In between, Warne reached 600 wickets and finished with another four-wicket haul. A faltering Australian batting line-up slumped to 133/5 and it was once again down to Warne, the batter, to rescue them. He counter-attacked and got a 90 – a century in Tests still eluded him – to help Australia avoid the follow-on. He went wicketless in England’s second innings but scored 34 and batted out crucial time in the final innings as Australia held on for a draw.
By the fourth Test, the wheels were completely coming off for Ricky Ponting’s troops. There was no escape from the follow-on this time. Warne, who had taken four wickets in the first innings, believed he could defend 170-180. He scored 45 but Australia could set up a target of only 129.
Warne still believed though. As shadows lengthened on the fourth day at Trent Bridge, Warne was pushing every inch of his muscles and mindspace to turn the game around. He almost did with four wickets. He removed Marcus Trescothick, Strauss and Vaughan in quick succession to make the England camp jittery and later sent back Geraint Jones. England, though, hobbled past the finish line losing seven wickets. They were in the lead now. Australia needed to win at the Oval to retain the Ashes.
At the Oval, Warne took six wickets in both innings. However, his dropping Pietersen in England’s second innings proved costly. The new sensation of English cricket, Pietersen went on to score 158 and took the hosts to safety. Warne, who had kept the Aussie ship afloat throughout the series, finally budged and England won the series 2-1 to reclaim the urn after 16 years of Australian dominance.
Warne finished the series with 40 wickets, 16 more than the second-best, at an average of 19.92 with three five-wicket hauls and two ten-wicket match hauls. He scored 249 runs too, with most of those coming when Australia were staring down the barrel.
Surely, England’s prototype leg-spin machine ‘Merlyn’ did help little to counter the years of experience Warne possessed. Richie Benaud, after all, was right in his quip: “Has it got a brain?”
“Without him, we would have won 4-1 as well, that’s how much of an effect he had on the Aussies. That’s how good he was and that great Australian side was the best of its generation, possibly of any generation. Without him, they would still have been a good side, but he made them great,” Vaughan wrote in The Telegraph after Warne passed away Friday.
Warne's greatest individual efforts on England soil, though, ironically, came in a losing cause. (Twitter) 
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