MOHALI: It won’t be an understatement to say that Shane Warne left an indelible mark on almost all cricket venues in which he played.
The PCA stadium here in Mohali was witness to Warne’s first magic spell in a world event. It was the World Cup semifinal against West Indies on 14 March 1996. In a match dominated by fast bowlers on a lively pitch that offered steep bounce, Warne single-handedly won the match for Australia in the last 10 overs as West Indies fell five runs short of Australia’s 207.
To put the spell of 4/36 in perspective, one needs to get an idea of how the pitch behaved. Former BCCI chief curator Daljit Singh remembers the game vividly. Mohali was still a new international venue. The PCA stadium boasted of being the fastest and bounciest pitch in India. The characteristic of the pitch was unlike any other in India. However, the tag came when the West Indian bowlers hurt and bounced out India to level the Test series in 1994.
Daljit shared an anecdote with TOI. “In the 1996 World Cup semifinal, when Curtly Ambrose’s ball flew past Mark Waugh and the wicketkeeper had to leap to gather it, a BCCI administrator jumped from his seat and exclaimed to me: what have you made, Daljit?”
The West Indies pace attack of Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Ian Bishop and Ottis Gibson had made life so tough for Australian batters that they struggled to hit the ball off the square as they limped to a modest 207/8.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul (80) and Brian Lara (45) ensured Windies needed around 40 runs in the last 10 overs with eight wickets in hand. Shane Warne had other plans. “When Mark Taylor gave the ball to Warne with less than 40 runs to defend, everybody in the stadium thought it was the wrong thing to do,” Daljit said.
“But what Warne did was magical. He choked the Windies batters. A good leg-spinner can always be very lethal on bouncy pitches. He had a cocked wrist position which allowed him to generate more revolutions that help to extract disconcerting bounce and he hurried the batters. He has always been an attacking bowler, he turned the match on its head in a matter of overs,” Daljit added.
Warne ensured the well-set Richie Richardson was stranded on 49 off 83 balls as he bamboozled the lower-middle order at the other end. “In my playing days in the 60s and 70s every team used to have leg-spinners. But that faded with the advent of ODI cricket. That night, Warne showed there is always a place for an attacking leg-spinner,” he added.
Warne may have bowled innumerable magical spells through his career, but the heroics of that night in March 1996 will forever reverberate around this stadium.
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