Warne achieves milestone of 700 Test scalps

MELBOURNE—Shane Warne — acclaimed by an Ashes record crowd — created Test history by becoming the first bowler to claim 700 wickets as dispirited England collapsed on the opening day of the fourth Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The master leg-spinner, playing in his penultimate Test match ahead of his farewell Sydney Test next week after announcing his retirement, captured 5-39 off 17.2 overs — his 37th five-wicket Test haul — as England succumbed for 159 after winning the toss Tuesday.
Australia reached stumps at 48 for two in reply off 11 overs with Matthew Hayden 17 not out and Ricky Ponting yet to score after Justin Langer (27) and nightwatchman Brett Lee (0) were both caught behind off successive Andrew Flintoff deliveries.
It was a case of the bigger the stage the bigger the performance as Warne bowled Andrew Strauss for his 700th wicket just before tea and went on to claim four more scalps to take his career tally to 704 in his 144th Test.
Warne produced his Boxing Day theatrics before an Ashes record crowd of 89,155, just shy of the world record single day’s Test attendance of 90,800 for the second day of the fifth Test against the West Indies at the MCG in 1961. “Whoever writes my scripts, he’s doing an unbelievable job,” Warne said. “I’ve been sitting there just shaking my head, not believing it actually happened, to be honest. It was a pretty amazing day. “The way it’s all panned out to retire and have two games left, end up coming to Melbourne on 699 Test wickets with the Ashes in the bag... there are some special days in your life and that’s definitely one of them.”
England would have been dismissed even more cheaply if not for some wretched Australian fielding, with wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist making a horrible hash of an attempted stumping when Kevin Pietersen was on his way to scoring 21. Paul Collingwood was dropped by Gilchrist on two before making 28. Topscorer Andrew Strauss was put down by Matthew Hayden in the gully off Warne on 41 — a straightforward chance — and went on to score 50. But it was Warne’s day on his home MCG pitch, receiving a sustained standing ovation when he was introduced into the bowling attack in the 41st over late in the middle session. Thirty minutes later the vast stadium was in uproar when Warne produced a signature leg-break to knock over Strauss’s middle stump and claim his 700th scalp.
“There’s 699 other guys who’ve felt pretty bad after getting out to Shane Warne and I’m no different today... It’s a great achievement for him and something that will live long in many people’s memory, but probably not mine,” Strauss said.
Warne, who has been acclaimed as one of the all-time cricketing greats, having revolutionised the art of wrist-spin bowling, thought he had the prized scalp of Hampshire county team mate Pietersen when he was only four. But Gilchrist mangled a stumping chance with England’s big batting gun hopelessly stranded metres down the pitch.
Flintoff continued his wretched batting series when he was out for 13, snapped up by Warne at first slip to give Stuart Clark his second wicket of the innings. Flintoff has scored 133 runs in seven innings in the series. Chris Read, preferred to Geraint Jones as wicketkeeper for the first time in the series, was all at sea against Warne before lashing out in frustration to be caught by Ponting at short extra cover for three.—Agencies