Inside rise of Alana King, miracle ball of century vs. England, Shane Warne influence

Alana King was a kid when she first heard Shane Warne waxing lyrical about the sweetness of the snap.

It sounded cool and it must have been because her idol was talking about its importance. She was too young at the time to appreciate what the King of Spin was talking about. But the message stayed with her. It was all about the snap.

Get all the latest cricket news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!!

As an aspiring leg spinner growing up in Melbourne, she tried to tune into the cricket whenever Warne was on the roster, with the legend driving her ambition to master a craft that this week saw her ranked the world’s No.1 ODI bowler for the first time.

Whenever King, who swill feature in the Test against India at her home ground the WACA beginning on Friday, hears that sweet sound now while bowling, she knows she is close to her most deadly.

“I think when I heard about the snap of the wrist is when Warne used to do his master classes,” she told foxsports.com.au.

“I learned a lot … from Warney when he was speaking in the commentary box. (I had) no idea what leg spin was, but I just loved watching him. But as my career progressed and I was getting older and I understood leg spin … he would do the odd master class on Boxing Day.

“You would tune in and you’d listen to it and he always talked about that snap of the wrist, about how that’s what’s going to create those revolutions of the ball that’s going to create the dip and the drop and then hopefully that bite off the wicket.”

King’s admiration for the Victorian is well known and she was delighted to be able to honour the legend when bowling from the Shane Warne end for the first time last year in an Ashes Test.

In a memorable series for Australia, which produced a whitewash against England, King produced a major highlight when delivering THAT BALL at the MCG to dismiss Sophia Dunkley.

So magnificent was the ripsnorter that pitched well outside leg stump before ripping savagely, Aussie great Brett Lee likened it to Warne’s “Ball of the Century” to remove Mike Gatting in the 1993 Ashes.

Not surprisingly, the delivery has been rotating heavily in King’s mind and on her social media feeds in the 12 months since one of the moments of the Australian summer as she prepares for the crowning match of this summer against India.

“I’ve definitely replayed it in both (my head and on television), seeing it in my mind, or getting reminded about it,” she said.

“I don’t really like talking about certain deliveries or myself – I’ve never been that type of person and I’m always trying to do my best for the team – but a special moment like that, there’s no doubt it’s a very fond memory and something that I do look back on and see what I can produce.

“I think that’s probably the more special part of it. I work a lot on my craft, and have had to tweak it over the years to make sure that I’m evolving my game. And I do that because I’m getting challenged by the best batters in the world and I want to take their wicket. I think when I bowl to the best batters in the world, it brings the best out of me.

“That delivery was definitely special and it’s nice to see those deliveries come out. I know as leg spinners, we strive to bowl those deliveries. They’re not going to come out every ball, and I know that, but when it does, I just really enjoy it.

“I think my reaction from that wicket kind of explained that, ‘Oh, my God, what just happened.’ When you’re in the moment, you don’t appreciate it as much. But yeah, when I watched it a few times, I was like, ‘That was pretty special.’”

THE BOWLED AND THE BRAVE

Leg spinners have to be brave. But there is a world where if not for a courageous decision by King during the pandemic, she might not have been in a position to deliver THAT BALL.

King, who starred in the ODI series against India last week, adores her hometown Melbourne. She loved playing for Victoria under Australian superstar Meg Lanning, but such was the strength of the state, she felt her prospects stalling in 2020.

It was not for a lack of mentors, just simply because the Victorian state attack was so strong that the time she had to make an impact as a leg-spinner was naturally restricted given how quickly the Vics were steamrolling rivals.

When Western Australia came calling during the pandemic, she decided to abandon all she knew for the promise on offer from the white sands on the west coast.

“The dream was always to play for Australia and I never saw myself playing for any other state. To be quite honest … I had great people who mentored me in Victoria. I had people who I looked up to and got to play alongside,” she said.

“I was finding myself in the 11, which was great, but I just wasn’t bowling as much as I’d love to and challenging myself in the game side of things to progress. And I know it wasn’t just bowling skills that I needed to make it to the next level. It was various things.

“But … I had six Australian bowlers ahead of me at the time and for two years, I just didn’t find myself bowling as much as I would have loved to. That’s no discredit to Victoria. I was playing with the best players in the world at the time, arguably.”

The call to switch states was not the only difficult decision. Harder still was calling Lanning to tell her she was leaving.

“It took a couple of months to make that decision and when I did, I felt all these weird feelings inside of me going, like, ‘Is this the right decision?’” she said.

“But making those phone calls to Victoria and to Meg as well, who was captain at the time, was pretty gutsy. It was pretty hard for me to say that I’m going to say goodbye to a state that raised me as a junior cricketer, gave me an option as a rookie to be in their state program, and then got a WBL contract, got a state contract. So I was gutted to leave.

“But I also saw the other side of it, that this is a great opportunity for me to play with some new players, to learn from some new coaches, and have a fresh start. So that’s what I did.”

Five seasons on from that move and Lanning has no doubt the Aussie spinner made the right call to seek a new horizon in the west, despite the investment Victoria made in her.

“I think King has really progressed as a cricketer and a person as well. I think she’s always been very talented, but, you know, she’s really got that competitive spirit,” Lanning said.

“She made a big decision to move from Victoria to WA, which would have been a challenge, and sort of got her out of her comfort zone. But I think that’s really, really paid her back in terms of her cricket, which is really nice to see.

“She always had the talent, but she’s sort of found that consistency now, and she’s got a little bit of flair about her, which I actually think is really cool. You want that in a team. She’s always in the contest. She’s always sort of ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ when things are going on.

“You can look at that whatever way you want, but I think it’s a really important part for a team to have someone who brings that energy. And she’s always been able to do that.”

A SPINNER BEGINS TO SHINE

A superb WBBL season in 2021-22 proved the springboard for King to make her national debut against England, with the spinner debuting for Australia in all three formats within a two week time frame.

That earned her a Cricket Australia contract and in a stellar rise to national fame, she was Australia’s second-highest wicket-taker in the World Cup winning side of 2022.

Her move interstate coincided with WA appointing former English spinner Rebecca Grundy as head coach and she was also able to tap into the expertise of Nicole Bolton, who had played for Australia.

“She took me under her wing a little bit, not just from a spin point of view, but just with moving away from home,” she said.

“I had some good mates that I’ve played a lot with at junior comps in Western Australia as well, so it’s not that I didn’t know anyone in WA. I think what made it easy is to have a bit of family in WA. That made it a little bit like home for me.

“But … it was probably the biggest decision I’ve ever made in my career thus far and I’m probably really proud of that decision, standing here now, and saying that I’ve done that (in order to) chase my dream of playing for Australia. I don’t think I would be here if I didn’t make that move.”

Her state and national teammate Beth Mooney is extremely glad she did, noting King’s virtue lay not just in her ability to turn the ball, but also in her ability to switch the mood around a group.

“I’ve been lucky enough to play with King for a few years now at the Scorchers in WA and she’s the first person I think of when I think of what a great teammate is,” she said.

“Regardless of what she can do with the ball, she’s one of the best teammates going around. And the stuff she can do with the ball is wizardry, isn’t it? She’s competitive. She wants to get the ball in her hand. She wants to take wickets. And those are the kinds of players that you want in your team.

“When you’re looking around and wondering where the next wicket is coming from, I can guarantee King is probably the first one (Alyssa Healy) is thinking of. So we’re very blessed in Australian cricket to have players like that, I guess, in our back pocket that we can use whenever we need.”

A SPECIAL HOMECOMING AND A FOND FAREWELL

As a kid, King was particularly sporty and showed talent not just at the crease but also between the baselines.

During recent Australian Opens a photograph of King serving as a ball girl at the grand slam will circulate on social media and she was more than handy with the racquet as well, winning a Grade 3 pennant as a teenager in the strong Victorian league.

Tennis and golf are among the interests King pursues when she takes a break from cricket, with the Melburnian saying time away from the game is crucial for her ability to succeed in matches.

“I think for any athlete that can get away from the game, it’s going to do you wonders, and I reckon my teammates would say I’m a bit of an over-thinker in cricket,” she said.

“I’m quite analytical of my own game, so I think having (hobbies) like tennis or golf, or going out for coffee, I think that’s great for me because I try to keep my mind and my body fresh away from the game.

“We spend so much time in the game, at training, review meetings, analysing opposition, our own game, and stuff like that, so any chance that I can get away from the game and switch off for a little bit (is an) awesome step for being prepared for the next game.

“I’m quite a social person. I love being around people and it doesn’t have to be a group of people. It could be one person that I spend most of the day with, just because I like having someone like to bounce ideas off, to talk about everything and nothing at the same time. It’s a great way for me to switch off from the game.”

Be it the added responsibility she has assumed since moving to Western Australia, or the relaxed lifestyle that comes with living in the west, King is flourishing for her country.

Often working in tandem with Ash Gardner, her attacking nature works as a superb counterpoint for her teammate, as demonstrated in the pink ball Test against England at the MCG last summer.

“We always have known that she can bowl a ripping leg spinner, but I think her knack and ability to change a game really quickly with the ball (is impressive),” Gardner said.

“She obviously is an ultra-attacking leg spinner. She’s always looking to … take wickets, which I think leg spinners, generally speaking, that is kind of what their role is. But I think … just her ability to change a game really quickly with the ball is certainly not easy to do, you know, to be really consistent and to, I guess, challenge the batters and work them out.

“And I think she’s had an impact with the bat as well. She’s someone that can hit sixes, and she can clear the boundary late in an innings. So she certainly has helped this group win a lot of games of cricket and I can’t wait to see what she can do over the next period.”

The challenge ahead is defeating India, the nation where her parents hail from, at what is now her home ground in Perth in what will be Alyssa Healy’s last game for Australia.

But as demonstrated this summer, an Australian success is far from guaranteed given the quality of the tourists, which clinched the ODI World Cup last October.

When King last played a Test match under Healy, the Aussie skipper had a hard job getting the ball out of her hand, so well was she bowling at the MCG.

She is hoping to deliver in similar fashion for the retiring champion and her nation at a ground she has grown to love.

“It is another special ground for me,” she said.

“I made my (state) debut against WA at the WACA and then for it to be my new home, I guess, and just getting to know the Perth fans and just to play in front of them (is great),” she said.

“I think the WACA is (going to provide) a great spectacle for our game and the fans will come out in numbers. And I know that not because I’m biased because I’m now based in WA, but I see it with the Scorchers, the way they turn out in numbers to support their local girls.

“And I think they’ve called me the adopted daughter of WA, which I’m very happy to be. Hopefully I can drag a few more fans out to see what’s going to be a great contest against India.”