Warne, Gatting and the mystery of the missing lunch

Graham Gooch still remembers the 'Ball of the Century' as if it were yesterday. Apart from the umpire, he was probably the best placed to see it. Standing at the non-striker's end to Shane Warne's first ball in Ashes cricket, on June 4 1993, he certainly saw more of it than Mike Gatting. Reminicing recently he is quoted in Reuters.com.uk as saying:

"Can I remember Gatt's face? It looked like someone had nicked his lunch. I don't think Gatt could quite believe it, to be honest.I was just thinking: 'I hope I don't get one of those'.
It was just a loosener, really drifted through the air, pitched outside leg and spun back sharply past Gatting's forward prod to clip the top of off stump. There was a second's hush as the Old Trafford crowd tried to comprehend what they had just witnessed, before pandemonium broke out."

Gatting pulled a pained, 'what-the-heck-happened-there?' sort of face and trudged off. He recalls:

"I get reminded about that ball by someone almost every day. At first, I didn't know it had bowled me. When they all went up I thought the appeal was for lbw until I turned around and saw the stumps."