 Warne dismissed Marcus Trescothick for his 600th Test wicket |
On leaving the back of his right hand, the ball, gyrating wildly in the air, drifted from middle stump to a foot outside leg before gripping the rough and spitting back across the waiting batsman.
Hearing timber being felled, Mike Gatting, England's wise man in the middle order, looked round in disbelief.
In the wonderful words of Gatting's skipper Graham Gooch: "It looked like someone had nicked his lunch".
In fact, he had just become the first Ashes victim of one Shane Keith Warne - on the same Old Trafford ground where Warne became the first player to pass 600 Test wickets on Thursday afternoon.
Twelve years on from his maiden Ashes Test and Warne - a little lighter, a little less blonde - is still breaking English hearts.
Thirty-five going on 19, Warne has spearheaded six Ashes series wins for Australia and his 17 wickets against England so far this summer demonstrate he has lost none of his guile.
In particular, the ball that dismissed Andrew Strauss in England's second innings at Edgbaston was every bit as revved-up as that which did for Gatting.
"Warne's secret is that he always tries to be at the peak of his form," the Victorian's spin-doctor Terry Jenner told BBC Sport.
"When a couple of quirks appear in his technique, he goes off and practises the things that work."
 | TOP TEST WICKET-TAKERS S Warne (Australia)
600 in 126 matches M Muralitharan (Sri Lanka)
549 in 93 matches C Walsh (West Indies)
519 in 132 matches G McGrath (Australia)
508 in 111 matches A Kumble (India)
461 in 95 matches Kapil Dev (India)
434 in 131 matches Sir R Hadlee (New Zealand)
431 in 86 matches |
Watching Warne bowl to England's batsmen is an excruciating pleasure, like watching your mates approach a beautiful woman in a bar and get knocked back one by one.
He changed the perception of spinners from largely defensive weapons to attacking threats.
Indeed, in resuscitating the dying art of leg-spin, Warne became arguably the most important cricketer of modern times.
And more than any other player, he made a game drowning in squat, moustachioed men sexy again.
"In most parts of the world they think the role of a spinner is as a container," adds Jenner.
"That's not in the spirit of cricket. I reckon that a leg-spin bowler should take wickets.
"Being scored off is not a sin, because while Shane's being scored off he's always in the hunt for wickets."
Warne returned inauspicious figures of 1-150 in his first Test innings against India in Sydney in January 1992.
But Warne's big breakthrough came against Sri Lanka later that year, bagging a match-winning 3-11 in the hosts' second innings in Colombo.
When he scalped 34 English batsmen in his first Ashes series the following summer, a superstar was born.
| SHANE WARNE TEST STATS Test debut:
v India, Sydney Jan '92 Test record:
600 wkts at 25.24 Best bowling (innings):
8-71 v Eng, Brisbane Nov '94 Best bowling (match):
12-128 v SA, Sydney Jan '94 Five wicket innings: 40 Ten wicket matches: Nine |
To think he had been thrown off the Australia Cricket Academy in 1991 for failing to take training seriously.
But while a revamped training regime has prolonged his career, Warne has continued to take a cavalier approach to other areas of his life.
He was recently estranged from his wife and children following yet more reports of extra-marital affairs and has also come under scrutiny for his dealings with a bookmaker.
More impressive, he has overcome potentially career-ending finger and shoulder problems.
And after serving a one-year ban for taking a banned substance on the eve of the 2003 World Cup, he returned to take 26 Sri Lankan wickets in three Tests.
As Warne has matured, so his repertoire has been stripped back - the flipper and zooter packed away in his box of tricks, perhaps never to be seen again.
Instead, Warne relies more and more on his stock leg-break, with varying degrees of spin, and suffocating accuracy.
"Over the years, every game I play people say 'he's no good any more' and write me off," said Warne in the lead-up to Old Trafford.
"Then I have a good game and people say 'he's as good as ever'.
"My stats over the last couple of years stand up with those at any stage of my career.
"When the enjoyment stops, I'll stop. At the moment it's still there - and who wouldn't want to play in a series like this?"
England fans will be hoping the enjoyment stops sooner rather than later - and I cannot think of a greater compliment than that.
MMIX
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