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Warne recalls his favourite flippers

King of Spin details a couple of crackers, and takes us through a magical dismissal of Alec Stewart

It was the delivery that gave batsmen the world over nightmares throughout the 1990s.

Flat, short and all-too tempting, Shane Warne's flipper was the leg-spinner's version of the wolf in sheep's clothing.

With a faster, straight delivery disguised with a leg-break action designed to fool batsmen into believing it to be simply a long hop, the flipper was for a long time the most lethal variation in Warne's bag of tricks.

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Prior to shoulder and finger surgeries at the mid-point of his career, the King of Spin took particular delight in befuddling his opponents with a ball that took him years to master.

"My flipper was such a weapon because (batsmen) hadn't seen it," Warne said in an interview with cricket.com.au.

"Once you see it, the good batsmen will pick it; they still have to play it, but they'll generally pick it, so it's not as much of a surprise."

By his own admission, Warne didn't land his flipper – a notoriously difficult delivery to bowl – every time. But when he did, it was a sight to behold.

"I had a mixture (of people showing me how to bowl it) – Jack Potter was the first to show me it, Jim Higgs, Richie Benaud, even a gentleman by the name of Bob Paulsen. Terry Jenner. So there were these guys showing me sliders, flippers, and I remember trying to bowl (the flipper) and I kept bowling it over the net, double bounces, I couldn't get it right," he reflected.

"It took me a good couple of years to perfect it."

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Equally as important as the execution, was the plan. 

"One of the things I learned over time was, the what, when and why: what delivery am I bowling, when am I bowling it, and why am I bowling it?" Warne said.

"Rather than, 'I haven't bowled a wrong'un or a flipper for a couple of overs, I'll bowl one'.

"There's a real strategy, plan and art to (getting the batsman with the flipper) – I used to love setting a batsman up for it.

"None better than Richie Richardson at the MCG in 1992, and Alec Stewart at the Gabba in 1994 – they were two of my favourite ones that I bowled; they didn't pick them and I set them up beautifully for it. Especially Alec Stewart."

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The Stewart wicket came in the first Ashes Test in the summer of 1994-95, when Warne captivated a Brisbane crowd and dismantled England with second innings figures of 8-71 – his best in Test cricket.

Warne, on his favourite pitch and at the peak of his fitness, prevailed over Stewart in a fascinating battle between bat and ball. 

"I was trying to work him across the pitch to get him to drive and try and get him nicking to slip, or to short cover," the 46-year-old explained.

"I was trying to go higher and wider and a bit slower, but I couldn't quite get there.

"So I thought I'd change tack and go a bit quicker; try and block him off at the crease, push him back and set him up for a straight one.

"So I bowled a couple of faster leg breaks, pushed him back, then I just dropped one a bit short, and he went back and played a really good cut shot. I didn't want it to go for four, but that was how I wanted him, because he planted his back foot, got in that position, and then cut it.

"I said, 'Right, now let's get that straight one, I'll go for the fast flipper'. And bang, I nailed him, he went back to cut again, and just as he went back, I could see that I'd got him, and it just hammered into the stumps."