Shane Warne will loom large over the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, just as he did every time he came up against the Proteas, writes SHANNON GILL.
As in life, in death Shane Warne’s presence over the Boxing Day Test will loom large.
The biggest grandstand at the MCG is now named after him, while fans are being encouraged to wear floppy hats and zinc on Boxing Day like their idol.
Don’t rule out the peroxide being busted out after a few Christmas dinners to complete the tribute.
The Warne legend was cemented in the Ashes, from the Gatting Ball and the MCG hat-trick through to his one-man defiance in 2005, Amazing Adelaide and his 700th Test wicket on his last Boxing Day at the MCG.
But it can be argued that for sheer quality, Warne’s performances against Australia’s Boxing Day opponent this year, South Africa, were superior.
Across 24 Tests against the Proteas Warne took 130 wickets. No other bowler in Australia vs. South Africa Tests comes within cooee of this figure.
It averages out as 5.42 wickets per Test, an identical figure to what he produced against the Poms.
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Warne’s career started as South Africa were re-entering world cricket after 20 years in exile, the first unified tour to Australia in 1993-94 setting up one of the most anticipated showdowns in modern times.
It was Fox Cricket expert Allan Border’s last season as Australian captain and he remembers the buzz.
“It was probably one of the reasons I played another season of international cricket to play against them,” he tells CODE Sports.
“It built nicely as far as the hype was concerned. They were the real deal by the time we came up against them.”
The MCG Test was ruined by rain, meaning that hype jackpotted through to the Sydney New Years Test.
Early on day one the South Africans were already providing the fight rarely seen by touring teams.
“It was a pretty simple equation as a captain,” says Border.
“Who bowls? Err … Warne.
“We had a pretty good bowling attack but Warnie was the man who could get breakthroughs for you.
“You’d throw him the ball and there’s the northern end taken care of for the day, who’s going to bowl from the other end?
“He was the go-to man.”
We’d seen Warne the magician, this was Warne the force of nature.
South Africa’s bright batting hope Daryll Cullinan was laid to waste by flippers creating a career-long hypnosis, as Warne’s marathon spells carried the Aussies on his back.
Remarkably Australia lost, but Warne returned match figures of 12-128, his best-ever in Test cricket. Border thinks for pure skill it may have been his peak.
“He really arrived. All the toys came out against South Africa.
“He looked like taking wickets every over, it was hard to take him out of the attack.
“In that series, he was as good as it gets.”
Against South Africa this would become the norm.
Four years later budding South African champion, Fox Cricket’s Shaun Pollock, made his first tour to Australia and saw the sequel in Sydney. He was the first of Warne’s 11 victims for the match for just 109 runs.
“In many ways he was the glue that kept the Australian team together,” Pollock tells CODE Sports.
“The role that he played, he could hold the game but at times he could attack and rip through and take the wickets.
“In Australia the surfaces can become batter-friendly, but you never really felt they were when Warnie was involved.”
While Cullinan is the much derided butt of the Warne-bunny jokes, he got off lightly compared to some. He only fell victim to Warne four times in Test cricket, while Hansie Cronje and David Richardson both were dismissed by him eight times.
But the real Warne bunny was Ashwell Prince.
Eleven times Prince trudged off with Warne next to his name including a remarkable eight-straight innings they faced each other in from 2002 to 2005.
It wasn’t just the Test arena where the dominance prevailed. Of course his signature one-day cricket performance was when he bowled Australia back into the match in the 1999 World Cup semi final with its famed tied finish.
Pollock says that South Africa developed a mental hurdle with Warne.
“I suppose fear is the word,” Pollock says.
“Because of that initial series, the impact he had and the Daryll Cullinan situation, I think there was almost an aura around him from a South African perspective.
“He gave them such a depth to everything, it didn’t matter if it was a green nipping surface in South Africa, he’d still come on and play his role really well.
“So unless you put yourself in a really good situation, Warnie was always threatening to turn the game in the favour of Australia. There wasn’t a game where he was out of the picture.”
The hex extended through to his final series against South Africa, where a lion-hearted last day performance in Durban saw Warne take six wickets and clinch the series with the Proteas just overs away from a draw.
It was indicative of the era. The historical ICC Test team rankings show that from 1995 through to the end of Warne’s career in 2007, Australia held the number one spot for all but seven months, when the Proteas snuck in three brief stints.
In Warne’s pomp South Africa was Australia’s perennial number one contender, more often than not he was the difference. It lends merit to the argument that his performances were better than those against England; a Test cellar dweller for the majority of Warne’s time.
“At crunch moments in games having him to call on was vitally important to their success against us,” says Pollock.
“Once he stopped they didn‘t have that up their sleeve and South Africa believed that they could win.”
Indeed the best measure of Warne versus South Africa may be series results. Warne never missed a Test series against them and never lost one, winning six and drawing two.
Post-Warne, South Africa have won four Test series and Australia two. South Africa succeeded Australia at the top of the test rankings in 2009, the choker tag that Australia helped create for the Proteas was broken.
With Warne’s hold over they went from strength to strength. Between 2012 and 2016 they were the undisputed best team in the world.
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Whether Warne was better against South Africa or England is a matter Border finds hard to decide on.
“He was good against everyone,” Border says, acknowledging how strong South Africa were in that era.
“He saved special moments for the Ashes, but he was the guy that always looked like troubling a very good South African team.”
All Pollock knows from first hand experience of combat with ‘The King’ is that facing up to him was a mixture of admiration and horror.
“There weren‘t too many bad deliveries floating around,” he says dryly.
“When he got on top, he didn’t let you go.”
Border thinks it appropriate that the first Boxing Day Test since his passing will be against a favourite rival.
“South Africa held a special place in his heart,” Border says.
“He had some good mates that he had some great banter with in those South African line-ups.
“He enjoyed playing against them, and enjoyed the way they played.”
That South African legacy is well worthy of a doff of the floppy hat on Boxing Day.
Maybe some blonde tips too.
Every ball of the Australia v South Africa Test series is live on Fox Cricket, available on Foxtel and Kayo.
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