15 Years On, Shane Warne's Edgbaston Magic Endures

Its been 15 years, but it feels like last week. Catching a train from Manchester to Birmingham with my father, munching on potato chips and talking about a rather one-sided semi-final between Pakistan and New Zealand that we'd just taken in, watching the 1964 James Bond flick Goldfinger on the eve of the game, bumping in to Pat Symcox in the lobby of our hotel the morning of it, and then trooping over to Edgbaston for the second semi-final of the 1999 World Cup.

But that's secondary. We're only talking about this day because of what transpired on the cricket field on June 17, 1999 - exactly 15 years ago. So lets rewind to that lovely English summer's day. The day Shane Warne enjoyed his best day in Australian yellow.

It is, truly, the stuff of folklore; the bizarre last over, with the two boundaries hammered by Lance Klusener, the inexplicable mix-up with Allan Donald, the scores tied. But anyone who was at Edgbaston that day will say that it belonged to Warne. Five months after a return from shoulder injury, Warne bowled a spell eerily reminiscent of the semi-finals of the previous World Cup, when victory had threatened to slip out of Australia's reach.

South Africa, chasing 213, were 43 for 0 with Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten looking good when Warne was tossed the ball. If ever there was a symphony orchestrated in one over, it was Warne's second. Ambling in, tongue protruding and eyes fixed firmly on Gibbs, he unleashed a beauty. The ball looped up, drifted away, landed in the rough outside leg stump, and fizzed past a dumbfounded Gibbs to clip off. Gibbs could only stand in disbelief, refusing to acknowledge that he had been bowled.

Five deliveries later, Warne floated another one up in the footmarks outside leg, Kirsten went down to sweep, missed, and the ball hit off again. Hansie Cronje lasted just two deliveries, as an attempted flick to the onside went to first slip and Warne had three wickets in eight alls. Called back for his final spell, Warne added Jacques Kallis to his kitty and a spell of 4 for 29 had been completed.

We all know how that epic match ended, but for this writer it is the memory of watching Warne in action for the first time live that trumps everything else. Even being invited up the stairs to the TV broadcaster's box and seeing Ian Botham and Geoffrey Boycott just feet away, while narrowly missing bumping in to Ricky Ponting on the way down. That was the effect Warnie had.