Photo: Michael Dodge / Newspix

Warne’s magical 700

Shane Warne gave his beloved Melbourne home crowd a Boxing Day to remember in 2006, claiming his 700th Test wicket against the old enemy – England – on the first day of the fourth Ashes Test at the MCG.

With the urn already in the bag for the Aussies, the focus of the crowd, the commentators and cricket lovers around the world was on Warne, who was sitting on 699 Test wickets and, earlier that week, had announced this would be his final MCG Test.

A near-record crowd of 89,155 had to wait until the 47th over of the day when Warne, bowling from his favourite southern end, deceived Andrew Strauss with a quicker, well-pitched up delivery that spun through the opener's gate, rattling his middle stump.

The crowd erupted as Warne held the ball aloft and celebrated a record breaking moment in cricket.

The milestone was just the beginning of a five-wicket haul for Warne that day, finishing with 5/39 in what would be the 37th and final occasion he would take five wickets in a Test innings.