Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne captured his 700th test
victim yesterday before claiming a five-wicket haul as England
collapsed to 159 all out on the opening day of the fourth Ashes
test.
Warne reached the once-unimaginable milestone of 700 when he
clean bowled England opener Andrew Strauss for 50 before tea,
triggering a collapse that saw England's last eight wickets fall
for 58 runs.
Warne also claimed the scalps of Kevin Pietersen, Chris Read,
Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar to complete his 37th five-wicket
haul in tests as well as taking a sharp catch in the slips to
dismiss England skipper Andrew Flintoff.
Brett Lee and Stuart Clark grabbed two wickets each and Glenn
McGrath one as England crumbled from a comfortable position of
101-2 to be all out inside 75 overs.
Although Australia have already regained the Ashes after winning
the first three tests, a near-record crowd of 89,155 crammed into
the Melbourne Cricket Ground to witness Warne playing his last
match in his home city and the 37-year-old did not let them
down.
Last week, Warne stunned the cricket world with his announcement
that he would quit international cricket after next week's final
Ashes test in Sydney but proved his retirement was unrelated to
form.
Warne ended Strauss' three-and-a-half hour resistance when he
rattled his middle stump then ripped through the lower order to
finish with 5-39 from 17.2 overs as the tourists folded for less
than 160 for the third time in the series.
"It's an unbelievable feeling to be honest. It was a great
effort, I thought all the boys bowled well," Warne said in a
televised interview.
"It's just great. The crowd were fantastic for all of us
today."
"To do it here in Melbourne ... I don't know who's writing my
scripts but it's pretty good."
Read, who was making his first appearance in the series after
England dropped wicketkeeper Geraint Jones, went for three when he
drove Warne straight to Ricky Ponting at short extra cover, before
Harmison (7), Pietersen (21) and Panesar (9) all threw their
wickets away and were caught in the deep.
England had made a bright start after winning the toss and
asking Australia to field but their batting once again let them
down.
The match started half an hour late because of early morning
rain and England had 23 on the board before they lost their first
wicket with Alastair Cook going for 11 when he tried to let a ball
from Brett Lee go that nicked the toe of the bat and carried
through to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist.
England limped to lunch on 36-1 after another rain stoppage but
Ian Bell departed for seven just after the resumption when he was
trapped lbw by Clark, who caused the tourists no end of trouble
with his nagging accuracy.
England's position might have been worse had Australia not
dropped two catches and missed a stumping but they failed to
capitalise on their let-offs.
At stumps on the first day, Australia trailed by 111 runs with 8
wickets remaining.
(China Daily December 27, 2006)