Picture Credit: Twitter
Shane Warne might have left the world but his genius with the ball in hand will never be forgotten. Whenever and wherever in the world a leg-spinner does well, he/she is compared to the great Shane Warne. In his decades-long career, Warner produced many magical deliveries to outfox the greatest of batters. But his ball to dismiss England's great Mike Gatting during the 1993 Ashes remains a special one, forever.
The ball that pitched outside leg-stump and turned viciously to clip the top of the off stump of Gatting was termed the ‘Ball of the Century’ and it proudly holds the title to date. However, Yasir Shah’s ball to dismiss Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis in the 1st Test being played between Sri Lanka and Pakistan might have come a bit closer to the ‘Ball of the Century’.
Shah, who was rated really highly by the great late Shane Warne, did something magical on the third day of the 1st Test to end a special innings of Kusal Mendis. Much like Warne’s delivery to Gatting, the ball pitched on the leg stump and turned miles to completely square up the batter and then hit the top of the off stump to stun everyone.
Mendis who was well set and was batting on 76 had no answers to that gem from Shah as he could look at his rattled stumps in bemusement.
Sri Lanka hold a nose ahead!
While Yasir Shah stole the show with his ‘unplayable delivery’, Kusal Mendis and Dinesh Chandimal did a remarkable job for Sri Lanka with the bat. With wickets continuously tumbling at one end, Kusal Mendis held one end intact and scored a brilliant half-century. After he was dismissed by Shah, Chandimal took the responsibility for steading Sri Lanka’s ship.
Continuing his good run with the bat, the batter scored another half-century and helped the hosts extend their lead over 300 before the end of play on Day 3. Chandimal is still holding one end with 86* against his name while Sri Lanka lead Pakistan by 333 runs.