THE BEST OF WARNIE

 

Image Credit- Cricket Australia.

Venue- Adelaide Oval, Adelaide [December 2006]

In the Australian summer of 2006, England toured Australia to play the Ashes. The hosts won the first test comfortably at the Gabba and all eyes were now set on the Adelaide Oval. The Adelaide pitch looked like a batting paradise. As a result, English Captain Andrew Flintoff elected to bat first after winning the toss. Despite a flat wicket the English started slowly and even lost a couple of wickets before they could have reached 50 runs mark. However, Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood stitched a 113 runs partnership between themselves and brought England back into the game.  

By the time Bell was dismissed for 60, the English scorecard read 158/3. However, what happened next was something truly incredible. Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood batted for nearly 74 overs and took the English total way past 450. By the time Collingwood was dismissed for 206, the English scorecard read 468/4. Apart from Collingwood, Pietersen too scored a massive 158 on the flat Adelaide pitch. At the end Flintoff and Ashley Giles played some brilliant strokes and the visitors declared at a massive total of 551/6 in their first innings. 

To make matters worse, Australia lost their first wicket just before the end of day 2. The morning of day 3 was not pleasant at all as the hosts were struggling at 65/3. England would have sealed the game on day 3 itself provided they would have not dropped the catch of Australian Captain Ricky Ponting. Ricky Ponting led the fight against the English as he scored another Ashes ton against their archrivals. Apart from Ponting, Clarke scored a brilliant hundred in such a pressure situation. Furthermore Mike Hussey, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne too contributed with their bat and the Australians ended up scoring 513 runs in their first innings. Matthew Hoggard was the leading wicket taker for the English as he picked up 7 wickets in the first innings. 

It looked that the match would end in a draw. But what happened on Day 5 was something really unbelievable. Shane Warne led the Australian attack from the front and pushed England on backfoot. He bowled with so much of accuracy and precision that it became very difficult for the English to score. Furthermore, he also kept on taking wickets at regular intervals which made matter worst for the visitors. His delivery to Pietersen will be remembered for ages wherein he bowled Pietersen round his legs. The English were bowled out for 129 in their second innings. Shane Warne picked up 4 wickets for just 49 runs. It is interesting to note that Warne bowled nearly 32 overs in that English innings which implies that he kept on bowling from one end for entire innings.

The Aussies need 168 runs in 36 overs to win the test and take 2-0 lead in the series. This was an easy task for the then great Australian team. The Aussies chased down the total in just 33 overs with 6 wickets in hand. Mike Hussey scored an unbeaten 61, whereas Ponting scored 49. For his remarkable 142 in the first innings and 49 in the second innings, Ricky Ponting was awarded the man of the match award. However, it was the magic of Shane Warne which brought back life into a dead game.

To watch the match winning spell of Shane Warne, Click Here.