Watch: Matt Parkinson delivers Ball of the Century contender in first County Championship game since 2019

Watch: Lancashire leg-spinner Matt Parkinson delivered a ‘Ball of the Century’ contender in his first County Championship game since 2019.

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He bowled Northamptonshire’s Adam Rossington with a delivery that pitched well outside leg-stump, only to turn sharply and hit the off-stump.

It’s been a difficult time for the wrist-spinner recently, who was with the England camp throughout their tour of Sri Lanka and India without playing a game, continuing a theme of him being used only sparingly; he didn’t play a single Bob Willis Trophy game for Lancashire in 2020 and was also left out for their first game of the 2021 County Championship season.

Finally making his first-class return after a gap of more than 18 months, Parkinson responded in perfect fashion, finishing with figures of 3-49 in 20 overs as Northants were bowled out for 177. The undoubted highlight was his dismissal of Rossington, which drew immediate comparisons to the ‘Ball of the Century’ bowled by Shane Warne in the 1993 Ashes.

There are several similarities between the two, with both blonde-haired leg-spinners at the start of their careers, bowling at Old Trafford, and the trajectories of the two deliveries virtually identical. With Warne going on to take more Test wickets than all but one other bowler, Parkinson, yet to make his England Test debut, will be hoping the resemblance doesn’t stop there.