Steve Harmison to Michael Clarke, Edgbaston 2005
Fancy shaking a bucket for “charidee” on the Saturday of the Edgbaston Test in exchange for free entry? In between freelance assignments back in 2005, this offer from the newly created Chance to Shine – coming via some fellow touring supporters from the previous Ashes in Australia – was the ultimate no-brainer. As I pinched a spare seat behind the bowler’s arm late on that undulating third day, the last recognised batsman, Michael Clarke, and his chum Shane Warne went into the final over having shaved 38 runs off the target of 282 for the eighth wicket, leaving another 107 to win. Watching in the crowd, these precise figures represented the creeping dread of another defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. Up steps Steve Harmison with one the best/worst, well-disguised/glaringly obvious variations ever to come out of his hand. If it felt like it was in slow-motion, it is because it was; a split-fingered floater that Clarke played at five minutes before it’s arrival for a moment of utter stump-rattling bliss that felt, at the time, like the match was won there and then. Little did we know what would follow the next morning. Ali Martin
Brett Lee to Kevin Pietersen, The Oval 2005
Under consideration was a dismissal involving a lot of initials at Old Trafford in 1976. IVA Richards b MWW Selvey. Richards missed an away-swinger, which passed harmlessly through to the keeper; he then missed an inswinger, which passed through the gate and splattered his stumps. Thus Selvey had his second Test wicket. Or there was a devious inswinger from Mudassar Nazar at Headingley in 1982 I nudged to square leg for my first Test run. But I’ll settle for a cruel one. Brett Lee to Kevin Pietersen on 15 at The Oval 2005. The ball flies to first slip, where Shane Warne, who has had a brilliant series, drops it. Two hours later the Ashes are secured for the first time in 16 years. Vic Marks
Chris Cairns to Chris Read, Lord’s 1999
Has anyone ever been as utterly flummoxed by a delivery as poor old Chris Read was by Chris Cairns at Lord’s in 1999? The 20-year-old Read had taken the gloves behind the stumps at the start of the series as one of a glut of new faces in the England squad at the start of Nasser Hussain’s captaincy. His dismissal in the first innings of the second Test became somewhat symbolic of an England side in a mess. Cairns and Dion Nash were making the ball talk and England were 123 for five when Nash removed another newcomer, Aftab Habib. Read survived six balls but ducked as Cairns sent down the seventh. Read had thought it was a beamer. It wasn’t. It was a brilliantly disguised slower ball and it crashed into his stumps as he crouched in front of them. John Ashdown
Michael Vaughan to Sachin Tendulkar, Trent Bridge 2002
There’s something enormously pleasing in sport about a non-specialist doing something a specialist should. A centre-back slotting home after a jinking run, a prop lithely slithering through to score a try, a tailender smiting a fast bowler for six. Or, an occasional bowler picking up the wicket of a great player, as Michael Vaughan did to Sachin Tendulkar at Trent Bridge in 2002. Tendulkar was on 92 when Vaughan got one of his part-time off-spinners to rip out of the footmarks and take the great man’s off peg. “Every time I see him he reminds me of it,” sighed Tendulkar. And why wouldn’t he? Nick Miller
Andy Caddick to Reon King, Headingley 2000
Andy Caddick never quite received due credit for his England Test career, regarded in many quarters merely as a slightly moody and inconsistent support act to Darren Gough. But he could be a handy weapon on his day, and none more so than when he took four wickets in an over to obliterate West Indies and secure the two-day finish that England this year threatened, but didn’t quite manage, at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge. While dismissing a tailender in a fast-fading side may not qualify as ball of the century, Caddick’s fourth wicket, a searing outswinging yorker that uprooted Reon King’s off stump, prompted understandable astonishment and jubilation among England supporters who had grown up watching their team repeatedly eviscerated when these opponents sported the greatest pace attacks the game has seen in the 70s and 80s. The opposition may have been much weaker on this occasion but this felt symbolic for an England team who had been on the floor a year earlier. England went 2-1 up with this win, and a first series success over West Indies for 31 years was duly secured in the final Test at The Oval. Tom Davies
Bob Willis to Ray Bright, Headingley 1981
They say there is no better sight for a fast bowler than seeing the middle stump ripped out of the ground. But when it is the match-winning wicket to complete one of the most clinical bowling spells in history, and one of the most unlikely comebacks to win one of the greatest Test matches, it’s fair to say it’s just that little bit more special. Bob Willis bowled like a man possessed in a spell of hostile pace that brought him eight for 43 from 15.1 overs, of which this ball was the last. Lest we forget the context; chasing 130 to win on day five having dominated the third Ashes Test, the tourists had slumped to 75 for eight. But their tail was wagging and Bright had hung around long enough to suggest he might still get Australia over the line. Willis needed one ball of his 16th over to finish it, a yorker speared so low, fast and straight that Bright seemed to trip over trying to keep it out, which he failed to do. Cue pandemonium. Paul Chronnell
