Inauguration of Pope a blessing for Australia

A little more than three months before his Test debut, a 22-year-old Australian named Shane Keith Warne played his third first-class match at the unlikely venue of Harare Sports Club in Zimbabwe.

Warne was playing for Australia 'B', as they were known at the time, and was selected for the tour largely on potential over performance; the chubby Victorian seemed to possess pretty good control, and he gave the ball a hell of a rip.

In the second innings of that second match on tour, Warne bowled 36 overs and completely bamboozled Zimbabwe with 7-49.

If there's vision of it, it is probably lying under decades of dusty videotapes in a non-descript room at the ground, long since disregarded amid the clutter.

Not since the day it happened has anyone witnessed Warne's feats in that match, and consequently – and maybe rightly – the 'birth of a legend' dates have been thrown forward; think Colombo '92, Melbourne that same year, or even Manchester and the Gatting Ball in '93.

More than 26 years on, Lloyd Pope's stunning display at the U19 World Cup in New Zealand has already been witnessed and tweeted about tens of thousands of times around the cricket world.

The flame-haired leg-spinner routed England for 96 as they pursued 128 in their quarter-final, recording figures of 8-35 from 9.4 overs – the best figures in the history of the tournament.

And while the times have indeed changed from the ascension of Warne to the inauguration of Pope, one thing remains very much the same: Australian cricket goes gaga for a leg-spinner.

Pope was, unsurprisingly, a fan of Warne's work growing up, though where the Sheik of Tweak learned his craft in the Melbourne suburbs, the 18-year-old first experimented with the turning ball some 3,000kms away in Cairns.

At his father's encouragement, he persisted with the leg breaks, and when as an eight-year-old he took six wickets playing for Barron River, he was hooked.

Years later he met Warne at the Adelaide Oval, who walked him through a few tricks of the trade and encouraged him to continue 'giving it a rip'.

"It's nice to look back and see how he's bowled – it's a learning tool I guess for me, watching him bowl in Test cricket," Pope said.

"He's had a huge influence on cricket, and certainly my bowling as well.

"But comparisons? I don't really think about them too much."

In recent years, outstanding performances at national junior levels have marked Pope's rapid rise; in three underage tournaments in the past two summers (one in Under-17s and two in Under-19s) he has taken 54 wickets at 16.1 from 23 matches.

Last April, he took 15 wickets in five matches for Australia Under-19s against a visiting Sri Lanka in Hobart, while he has also picked up a rookie contract with South Australia.

But today's head-turning display was something else, channeling as it did Warne's utter destruction of England and the excitement that a mastery of his art brought with it.

Pope's wicket-taking delivery was the wrong'un – not a noted weapon of Warne's – but his desire to get the ball in his hands when the match – and Australia's presence in the tournament – hung on a moment was very reminiscent of the King of Spin.

At 0-29 after five overs, England were in cruise control as a spot in the final four looked assured.

Pope conceded six from his first over but turned the match in his next two, taking three wickets for two runs in the space of 10 balls.

He added another five wickets in a remarkable spell that brought to mind Warne's efforts in the semi-final and final of the 1999 World Cup, when the leg-spinner brought Australia back from the brink against tournament favourites South Africa with 4-29, then ripped Pakistan apart with 4-33 to claim the trophy.

Warne's heroics were played out some five months before Pope was even born, and the teen wasn't able to bring those matches to mind, but there was more than a hint of Warne in his animated, almost aggressive celebrations as he ran through England, as well as his ability to wrest control of a contest that was fast getting away from his team.

"I like putting myself in pressure scenarios," he said. "I feel like I bowl better under pressure.

"(Captain Jason) Sangha throwing me the ball at that time gave me the confidence that … my captain was looking to advance the game, (so he) put me in there early and had the faith to land the ball straight away and take some wickets."

As for spin-bowling idols, well, there can be only one.

"Yeah, has to be Shane Warne, doesn't it," he said. "I mean he's pretty good, isn't he."

Birth of a legend? That is only a question that can be answered as the years unfold, but plenty will have already marked today down as a special one for Lloyd Pope and the art of leg-spin.