Shane Warne relives his 99 at WACA in 2001 and how he got rid of the frustration

Former Australia spin legend Shane Warne is the second highest wicket-taker in Tests with 708 scalps. He has taken over a thousand wickets in international cricket in a career spanning 15 years. However, one aspect about his Test career that the 49-year-old would not be proud of is that he didn’t manage to score a hundred despite scoring over 3,000 runs. Warne actually holds the record of being the highest run-getter in Tests without scoring a single hundred.

During his long career featuring 145 Tests, Warne got out twice in the 90s and as many times in the 80s. His best score in the longer format remains 99 which he scored against trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand at the WACA Ground in 2001. The legend recently relived the innings that took him closest to glory in the latest Howie Games Podcast, saying the frustration he had at the time and also how he overcame it with help of an ashtray, a shower, and beer, Fox Sports reported.

After guiding his team out of discomfort, Warne was waiting to make history and faced a young Daniel Vettori for that much-awaited run. But then he played a shot which he will regret all his life, slog-sweeping only to find Mark Richardson’s hands in the deep.

Why he didn’t go for a single that day, Warne still wonders

“I genuinely ask myself that question every day,” the former cricketer told when asked why he didn’t just go for a single. “When I see the replay of me trying to slog it for six after all dogging it down the ground I think ‘you idiot’. What were you doing? My mindset wasn’t to play a big mo for six. I was just trying to sweep it along the ground for one. But when I watch the replay I take this almighty swing at it.”

According to Warne, he choked that day at the WACA, just as he had in Manchester during the 2005 Ashes where he fell 10 runs short of a century. After the dismissal at the WACA, Warne saw the then Australian team manager Steve Bernard coming to his aid to get rid of the negative energy.

“By the time I got to my spot and there was just deathly silence in the dressing room, Steve Bernard, the team manager, had put a chair in the shower area and an ashtray and a beer there. I just walked straight in there, I just lit up a dart, had a beer and went ‘you idiot’. And everyone started laughing,” he recalled.

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