Top 20 in 2020: The best Test moments, No.4

There are moments in cricket, as in all sport, that are so memorable you can recall exactly where you were and who you were with when they happened.

Be they back-to-the-wall hundreds or feats of individual brilliance, they are the moments you've re-watched countless times in the years since and still get chills every time.

Re-live the countdown so far: 20-18 | 17-15 | 14-12 | 11-9 | 8-6 | 5

As part of our 20 in 2020 countdown series, we're looking back at the 20 most memorable moments from Test matches played on Australian soil in the past 20 years.

They might not be the best innings ever played, or the perfect bowling performance, but rather moments that are quite simply unforgettable.

We continue today with number 4 in our Top 20 countdown of the best Test moments and we will take a look at the top batting and bowling performances in the coming weeks as well.

Make sure you return to cricket.com.au and the CA Live app every day this week as we continue the countdown all the way to No.1

4) Shane Warne’s 700th wicket

Melbourne Cricket Ground, 2006

Image Id: 1C7A547A2E7742E1A64BD011E7FF9F66

By Adam Burnett

Melburnians, and Australians more broadly – and even, one suspects, the Barmy Army – came in their tens of thousands to witness history.

Shane Warne always had an eye for sporting theatre and it so happened, the stars had aligned for him just so.

Upon announcing his imminent retirement in the build-up to the 2006 Boxing Day Test, he had made the fourth Ashes Test of the summer his very own MCG farewell. Sure, there was that other old fella – Glenn McGrath – who had been a handy bowler as well and was also calling it quits, but he hailed from north of the border.

No, this one was about Shane Keith Warne.

Better still, the King of Spin had turned and teased and tweaked and tormented his way to the remarkably convenient figure of 699 Test wickets.

No-one had ever reached 700 before and it seemed nothing would stop Warne becoming the first that very Boxing Day, when England captain Andrew Flintoff won the toss and opted to bat under cloudy skies.

Except the rain – there were two delays – and maybe Warne's skipper, Ricky Ponting, who had perhaps failed to read the papers, or missed the crowd baying for the arrival of the champion leg-spinner to the bowling crease through each and every one of the first 40 overs of the day.

Image Id: EFBACD0C8F4B4A33B1B69593FDABF189 Image Caption: Warne takes off on his victory lap // Getty

Then suddenly, he was there. Standing at the top of his mark, talking field placements with Ponting, and rolling his shoulder over as he prepared to do what he did better than anyone.

The crowd stood and applauded in unison. It was some greeting; part 'thanks for the memories', part 'thanks in advance' ahead of the moment everyone now sensed was only a matter of deliveries away.

It came four overs into his spell. A tetchy crowd had sat through the rain breaks and a fairly dreary day's play. England had ambled to 3-101. Then at 3.18pm, their faith was rewarded.

Coming from over the wicket, Warne tossed one up just enough to tempt Andrew Strauss. He considered advancing, but Strauss had been undone by Warne before, and the mental demons were evident in his footwork. The left-hander took a tentative half-step forward, and his ill-considered swish through mid-wicket appeared hopeful at best. The ball had floated and drifted, and then it landed outside Strauss's off stump, before turning back sharply through a yawning chasm separating bat from pad.

It was spectacular stuff.

Warne set off on his celebration with one arm aloft, waggling a finger in the air then leaping into the arms of his teammates. He knew the stakes. He knew the magnitude of the moment. So too did an uproarious crowd.

Fourteen years earlier, he had been a match-winner in his very first Test at the MCG, taking a final-innings 7-52 to bowl Australia to victory against a strong West Indies side. It had been a teaser of the highlights-reel career that was to come, but even the most optimistic there that day would not have envisaged this.

Seven hundred was impossible. Yet here it was.

Image Id: 447BE03C58A34E109F0536A5DA16BA98 Image Caption: A packed MCG witnessed history on Boxing Day, 2006 // Getty

Ninety minutes later, Warne had figures of 5-39 and Australia were on their way to a three-day hammering of England.

After 13 years and eight Ashes series, they still hadn't figured him out.

Top 20 in 2020: Best Test moments countdown (so far)

20) Legends bid farewell

19) Warner dines out before lunch

18) Smith's brave last stand

17) Hussey and McGrath's final stand

16) McGrath predicts his milestone moment

15) Perfect delivery cooks England skipper

14) McGrath's miracle catch

13) Perry celebrates 200 ... twice

12) The Harmison ball

11) Warne falls heartbreakingly short

10) A trio of Test triples

9) A fitting tribute to a fallen friend

8) McGrath & Gillespie's batting masterclass

7) Collapses and controversy in SCG nail-biter

6) Amazing Adelaide

5) Peter Siddle's birthday hat-trick

4) Shane Warne's 700th wicket

Make sure you return to cricket.com.au and the CA Live app every day this week as we continue the countdown all the way to No.1