Shane Warne
Shane Warne. (Photo by Philip Brown/Getty Images)

The legendary Australian spinner Shane Warne is celebrating his 49th Birth Anniversary today. In fact, Shane Warne is the best leg-spinner to embrace the game. Warne scalped 708 wickets in his illustrious career which spanned for 145 Test matches. Warne always played the game in a hard way and always liked to take the bull by its horns. The leg-spinner was well known for his guile bowling.

Warne played 194 One Day Internationals for Australia in which he scalped 293 wickets. The right-hander was also handy with the bat as he scored 3154 runs in his Test career whereas he amassed 1018 runs in the 50-overs format.

Shane Warne
Shane Warne Photo Credit: Getty Images.

Here are some interesting numbers achieved by Shane Warne in his career.

Shane took 708 wickets in red ball version where he scalped 293 wickets in the One-Day form. Thus, he took a total of 1001 wickets and became the first ever bowler to scale the mountain of 1000 Internationals wickets.

Warne was the Man of the Match in the World Cup Final of 1999 against Pakistan. Shane scalped 4-33 to bundle out Pakistan for a paltry 132. In fact, Warne had taken 4-29 in the famous semi-final against South Africa. Warne was Man of the Match in the semi-final as well.

Shane Warne
Credits: AP

Shane Warne led Rajasthan Royals with aplomb in the inaugural edition of the IPL. Thus, he led the franchise to glory in the maiden season.

Shane Warne was the first bowler to get to 700 Test wickets. Former England captain Andrew Stauss was Warne’s 700th prey.

The right-hander scored 3154 runs in Test matches which is the most for any batsman without the help of any hundred. Warne’s highest Test score was 99 which came against New Zealand.

Warne
Shane Warne. Credits: Getty

Leg-Spinner record against Indian batsmen in Test cricket.

Shane Warne dismissed Rahul Dravid on seven occasions.

Warne got the better of VVS Laxman on five times.

The leggie scalped his biggest nemesis, Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket on two occasions.

Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne
Warne shared a great rivalry with Sachin Tendulkar. Credit: Shaun Botterill/Allsport

Warne was able to get through Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag on two times.

In ODI cricket:

However, Warne got the better of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid on a solitary occasion.

Cricket is my first love. I want to be a wordsmith. I want to weave magic with my words.