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.

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Standing at the non-striker's end, he certainly saw more of it than Mike Gatting.

"Can I remember Gatt's face?" he says. "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'."

Shane Warne's [Images] first ball in Ashes cricket, on June 4 1993 -- "it was just a loosener, really" recalls Gooch -- 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."

BEST CHANCE

Warne, the leading wicket-taker in Test cricket, went on to take 34 wickets in the series at 25.79 and has been the bane of English batsmen ever since.

Gooch, however -- who made 65 and 133 at Old Trafford -- believes England [Images], having lost the last eight Ashes series, could go close in the five-match series starting on July 21.

"England have got their best chance since they last won in 1986-7 but, having said that, they are going to have to play the best cricket they have played across the series," he said.

"Australia are comfortably the strongest in world cricket, they have the track record, the experience, the class acts.

"England are playing well but they will have to play at the top of their game to have a chance. To beat Australia in two or three Tests is a big call.

"They must be aggressive, go out with belief and take the game to Australia. They must target some of their star players. If they stay back and play wait-and-see cricket, I'm not sure... We have got to find some way of making the Australians underperform.

"It's for England to win it. I don't think Australia are going to lose it."

INJURY PROBLEMS

England look stronger than in recent years, particularly since the emergence of strike bowler Steve Harmison, but Gooch said they would have to avoid the injury problems which decimated their squads in 2001 and 2002/3.

"Harmison is England's cutting edge. It's vital that he and (Andrew) Flintoff stay fit," said Gooch.

"Some of the key issues will be (Michael) Vaughan's captaincy and run scoring. I think he needs to score like he did in Australia two years ago. I suspect the Australians will target those three because they see them as the danger."

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As for Warne, Gooch thinks he may be in decline, no longer able to rip the ball quite as viciously as he did in the past. The aura, however, and the trepidation remain.

"He's a box-office cricketer. He plays cricket with his heart on his sleeve, he gives it everything, whether he's playing for Australia or Hampshire or whoever," said Gooch. "I have the utmost respect for him. I enjoyed all my tussles with him.

"He's got the reputation, the know-how and the nous. He's a formidable competitor. If you score runs against him you can sit down and have a beer and think: 'I've done a good job'.

"His personality is certainly not harmful to his cause. I think the key thing with Shane Warne is play the ball, not the man."