Legends Month: The best of Shane Warne

It'll be forever remembered as the greatest one-day international of them all, chiefly for its cliffhanger finish.

An unstoppable Lance Klusener, a gobsmacked Damien Fleming, a back-hand flick, a chaotic miscommunication and the second-most remembered underarm roll in cricketing history coloured an epic that paved the way for Australian World Cup glory.

While those are the images cricket fans most vividly recall from that Edgbaston semi-final nearly two decades ago, Shane Warne's mesmerising spell in that classic not only altered the course of the tournament, it might have been the most important moment of the leggie's one-day career.

The team's vice-captain cut a forlorn figure for much of Australia's five-and-a-half-week campaign in the United Kingdom as he contemplated retirement through one of the lowest points of his international career.

Overlooked for their most recent Test in the Antigua for Stuart MacGill, some had questioned whether some of Warne's old magic had disappeared after returning from a serious shoulder injury.

He was largely ineffective through the tournament's early stages as Australia slumped to defeats against New Zealand and Pakistan, meaning Steve Waugh's men would have to go undefeated through seven games to lift the trophy for a second time.

But Warne was the king of the bluff, regardless of how low his chips were stacked.

Thrown the ball after South Africa had already knocked off a fifth of Australia's sub-par target of 213, Warne arrested his decline in downright violent fashion across the course of his first nine offerings.

His blonde hair upright and a touch of zinc on his nose, Warne's second ball went close to matching his first one in Ashes cricket on British soil; a dipping, fizzing, sharp-turning leg-break that made Herschelle Gibbs look like he’d stepped onto a tightrope blindfolded.

Gary Kirsten suffered the same fate the following over when his swipe found fresh air, as Warne viciously shook his fists to the heavens and screamed with manic delight.

He didn't even bother appealing when captain Hansie Cronje kicked one to first slip two balls later and was unfortunate to be given out caught ; nothing was going to get between Warne and his match-turning moment.

The old magic was back.

Having returned later that afternoon to have Jacques Kallis caught at cover by Waugh, Warne had removed the Proteas' four best batsman and had done all he could to bowl his side into the final.

As he took his hat with five overs left in the match and his part in the match over, Warne's impeccable figures of 4-29 from 10 overs (with four maidens) told most of the story.

The rest of the tale hardly needs retelling.

Klusener nearly singlehandedly reduced the equation from 38 off 30 to nine off the final six from Fleming, whose jaw was soon hanging open when 'Zulu' levelled the scores with a pair of tracer-bullet cover-driven boundaries.

Television cameras briefly panned to Warne, whose hands-on-hips demeanour reflected a similar disbelief at what he was witnessing.

But, in a moment of madness, Klusener scrambled and Allan Donald didn’t, to see Australia triumphant and then immediately whisked off the field as fans invaded the ground.

The rest is history.