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          'Sack it, I'm going to try and rip it' - Matt Parkinson on his ball-of-the-century contender

          Matt Parkinson only played four Championship games in 2019 Getty Images
          • ESPNcricinfo staff
          Apr 17, 2021, 10:15 AM

          Matt Parkinson, the Lancashire legspinner, became a social-media star on Friday after bowling a ball-of-the-century contender to Northamptonshire's Adam Rossington in a County Championship fixture at Old Trafford, the delivery evoking memories of Shane Warne's dismissal of Mike Gatting at the same ground in 1993.

          It didn't take long for the split-screen comparison to emerge...

          ... or for the plaudits to start flooding in.

          By Saturday morning, Warne himself had given it his seal of approval.

          Parkinson had come into the game following a frustrating winter, spending three months in England's bio-secure bubbles in Sri Lanka and India without getting on to the field.

          He said that he wanted to "prove a point" after missing out on selection for Lancashire's first game of the season, and that after being hit for a couple of boundaries by Simon Kerrigan, his former team-mate, he had thought: "Sack it, I'm going to try and rip it."

          Needless to say, it was a plan that worked pretty well.