Shane Warne's worst nightmare relived

Sidhu broke Warne's confidence in the very first Test of the series © AFP

Undisputably the most effervescent personality in the sport over the last two decades, Shane Keith Warne, has achieved everything possible on a cricket pitch. 

Whether it is influencing a World Cup victory for his country or putting down the lid on arch rivals England, there isn’t much that the champion leg-spinner did not achieve in his days as an international cricketer.

However, most of Warne’s nightmarish moments as a cricketer came when he travelled to India.

With just 43 days to go for the Bangalore Test to commence, it is time to take a trip down memory lane and recap some of the celebrated moments in India-Australia Test cricket.

Tour: Australia in India, 1997-98

The focus: Shane Warne’s dismal show

It was Australia’s first full tour to India in over ten years. They travelled to India for a one-off Test in 1996-97 but in the absence of injured Shane Warne. It was the blond haired spinner’s first Test tour of India and the world was getting ready for a showdown between Shane Warne and champion India batsman Sachin Tendulkar.

Warne was carrying a career threatening shoulder injury during this stage of his illustrious career.

Prior to the tour of India, the leg spinner was bowling in the best possible rhythm, having claimed 39 wickets in the six home Tests against South Africa and New Zealand. During the series against South Africa, he had become the first-ever Australian spinner to pick up 300 Test wickets and had set extremely high standards for himself.

But Warne was not effective on that tour, the reasons were:- 

• Australia travelled with an inexperienced bowling attack. Paul Reiffel was the only other bowler in the team to have taken 100 or more Test wickets.
  
• Warne was carrying a career-threatening shoulder injury.
   
• The tour game against Mumbai at Brabourne Stadium proved to be a disaster for the visitors. Warne was demoralised as he went for plenty of runs in that game. 
   
• Warne had no answers to Tendulkar’s repeated paddle sweeps during the three-Test series.

Australia’s bowling attack for the 1998 tour of India was 

Bowlers	Tests	Wickets
PR Reiffel	34	104
MS Kasprowicz	10	28
AC Dale	0	0
P Wilson	0	0
SK Warne	64	303
SCG MacGill	1	5
GR Robertson	0	0
DW Fleming	4	17

(Series stats: Performance in the three-Test series)

SCENE 1 (24 – 26 Feb 1998) 

The tour game at Brabourne Stadium versus Bombay XI was a nightmare that Warne and the Australians will never forget. The ground was very small but the Mumbaikars made way for the Indians to steamroll the Aussies.

Day 1 – Australia declared at 307-7
Day 2 (lunch) – Mumbai were 135-3 of 25 overs @ 5.40 RPO
Day 2 (tea) – Mumbai were 266-4 of 53 overs @ 5.01 RPO
Day 2 close – Mumbai declared at 410-6 after 78.1 overs @ 5.18 RPO

Warne facts in the match…

• Came into bowl in the 14th over when Mumbai were 50/1.
   
• His first spell was 6-1-50-0, figures at the end of his second spell read 13-1-78-0 and he finished with figures of 16-1-111-0
   
• His first flipper in India was dispatched past cover point (a cut shot off the back-foot) for a boundary. 
   
• He conceded 14 boundaries and 2 sixes.

Mumbai facts…

• Captain Sachin Tendulkar brought up his half-century (60 balls, 9x4). Thirty deliveries later, he brought up his century (90 balls, 15x4, 1x6) 
   
• Tendulkar scored his 32nd first-class hundred and the first-ever double century of his first-class career. 
   
• 55.60 % Mumbai’s runs came off boundaries. Also they maintained a scoring rate of 5.24 runs per over and struck 69.61 runs per hour.

SCENE -II

Warne appealing for Tendulkar's wicket. He did not manage a single LBW in the three-Test series © AFP

The Test series began with much delight for Warne as he picked up four wickets and Australia got a first-innings lead of 71 runs in the Chennai Test.

However the second innings spelled the doom for Australia and Warne as the leg spinner conceded more than 4 runs per over and picked up just the solitary wicket – that of Sidhu, who went after Warne in both the innings.

The Australians, with their in-experienced bowling attack, were unable to get an early breakthrough. The Indian openers maintained an average of 86 runs for the first-wicket in the series (with scores of 122, 43, 191, 0, 24 and 50).

Warne was played with caution in his first spell by the Indians, but as he came on again, the Indians went after him with vigour.

It was only in the last innings that he got his first wicket in the fourth over. Otherwise he had to wait for more than 10 overs to get his first wicket.

1997-98	Performance	Score when introduced...	First spells	First scalp
Chennai Test (1st innings)	35-11-85-4 (11x4, 1x6)	34-0(13 overs)	6-2-16-0	14.5 overs
Chennai Test (2nd innings)	30-7-122-1(19x4, 3x6)	40-0 (10 overs)	6-2-18-0	20.3 overs
Kolkata Test (1st innings)	42-4-147-0( 23x4, 3x6)	45-0 (14 overs)	6-0-17-0	-
Bangalore Test (1st innings)	35-9-106-3 (15x4, 1x6)	33-0 (15 overs)	7-2-13-0	11.6 overs
Bangalore Test (2nd innings)	25-6-80-2 (7x4, 1x6)	10-0 (7 overs	13-2-42-2	3.6 overs

Warne ended the series with just 10 wickets at a shocking average of 54. 65.55% of the runs that he conceded came in boundaries.

He could not manage a single LBW victim during the three-Test series. Before the tour of India, he had picked up 55 wickets via LBW and 57 wickets via bowled. The two modes of dismissals accounted for 36.97 % of his 303 wickets.

The Aftermath

• Warne returned home disillusioned and had an operation on his shoulder. 
   
• He returned during the last Ashes Test at SCG in 1999, which also happened to be Mark Taylor’s last Test as a captain and player. In his very first over Warne picked up Mark Butcher, LBW.

TO BE CONTINUED..........