Smith recalls Warne debut

England batsman Mike Gatting looks totally bemused after being bowled by Shane Warne's now infamous delivery

Depending on which Ashes corner you occupy, it was either The Ball From Hell or The Ball Of The Century. Either way, it was an unplayable delivery that has shaped over a decade of Ashes combat.

It was bowled by Shane Warne to Mike Gatting at Old Trafford on Friday, June 4, 1993, and it was the 23-year-old Victorian leg-spinner’s first Test delivery against England.

The ball dipped in flight, pitched six inches outside Gatting’s left stump before fizzing across his tentative forward prod to clip the top of his off stump.

Gatting, acknowledged as one of the world’s best players of spin, stood for a moment in disbelief before trudging back to the pavilion.

Shane Warne is the most successful leg spinner there has ever been © Getty Images

Warne, who will return to Old Trafford for next week’s third Test as the most successful leg-spinner the game has seen, had arrived.

Robin Smith was next man in for England. The Hampshire batsman had scored 553 runs and two centuries in his debut Ashes series four years earlier and was widely seen as the man to combat the pace threat posed by Craig McDermott and Merv Hughes.

But like Gatting and the rest of his England team-mates, Smith had never seen anything like Warne before.

“After that ball, there was an air of total disbelief in the England dressing room,” recalls Smith, who averaged more than 43 in a 62-Test career.

“We were looking at the delivery as it was replayed from just about every possible angle and trying to work out how he could put so much swerve and fizz on the ball.

Robin Smith was a fine player for both England and Hampshire © Getty Images

“In fact, I was still looking at replays when Gatt returned to the dressing room looking absolutely stunned. I should have been halfway out to the middle by then and I didn’t last long before Shane had me caught at slip by Mark Taylor.

“That ball set the tone for the whole series and in many ways shaped the next 10 years. At the time, a lot of people believed pace was the only way to win Test matches but Warne proved that top-class spin could still play a decisive role.

”Generally speaking, I’m not the kind of ex-player who can remember every match, every innings. But I’ll never forget that one!”

Smith left the Test arena three years later but he was re-united with Warne when the Australian joined Hampshire for the first time in 2000.

“If he was going to play county cricket, it was a relief to have him on the same side,” says Smith, 41, who now hosts Hampshire’s corporate hospitality at The Rose Bowl after retiring two years ago with over 25,000 first-class runs to his name at an average of 40-plus.

Smith never believed the talk that Warne and paceman Glenn McGrath were over the hill © Getty Images

“What’s more, I was captain at the time so I made sure he was bowling in the other net when it was my turn to practice!

“There’s no doubt that he and Glenn McGrath are still great bowlers who will have a big influence on the current series. It’s ridiculous to suggest they are over the top or too old.

“I said before the start that Australia were overwhelming favourites and they showed why at Lord’s. England have done well to become the second best side in the world but Australia are still the best by a considerable margin.

“Unlike a lot of people, I thought England did okay in the first Test at Lord’s – until they folded on the Sunday afternoon. That was very disappointing but a lot of what went before was encouraging."