Shane Warne became the second bowler in Test cricket history to take 500 wickets, after the West Indies' Courtney Walsh, when he had Sri Lankan skipper Hashan Tillakaratne caught by Andrew Symonds in the second innings of the first Test, which Australia won, in Galle on Friday.
While Walsh needed 129 Tests to claim 500 wickets, Warne reached the milestone in only his 108th Test.
It will be interesting to see who will surpass Walsh's world record of 519 Test wickets, since Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan, with 496 wickets, is not far behind Warne.
A statistical review of Warne's performance in Test cricket :
Performance in each series:
| Opponent | Season | M | B | Md | R | W | Ave | Best | 5W | 10W | SR | ER |
| India | 1991-92 | 2 | 408 | 9 | 228 | 1 | 228.00 | 1-150 | - | - | 408.00 | 55.88 |
| Sri Lanka* | 1992-93 | 2 | 229 | 8 | 158 | 3 | 52.67 | 3-11 | - | - | 76.33 | 69.00 |
| West Indies | 1992-93 | 4 | 650 | 23 | 313 | 10 | 31.30 | 7-52 | 1 | - | 65.00 | 48.15 |
| New Zealand* | 1992-93 | 3 | 954 | 73 | 256 | 17 | 15.06 | 4-8 | - | - | 56.12 | 26.83 |
| England* | 1993 | 6 | 2639 | 178 | 877 | 34 | 25.79 | 5-82 | 1 | - | 77.62 | 33.23 |
| New Zealand | 1993-94 | 3 | 909 | 49 | 305 | 18 | 16.94 | 6-31 | 1 | - | 50.50 | 33.55 |
| South Africa | 1993-94 | 3 | 1051 | 63 | 307 | 18 | 17.06 | 7-56 | 2 | 1 | 58.39 | 29.21 |
| South Africa* | 1993-94 | 3 | 1145 | 69 | 336 | 15 | 22.40 | 4-86 | - | - | 76.33 | 29.34 |
| Pakistan* | 1994-95 | 3 | 1090 | 50 | 504 | 18 | 28.00 | 6-136 | 2 | - | 60.56 | 46.24 |
| England | 1994-95 | 5 | 1537 | 84 | 549 | 27 | 20.33 | 8-71 | 2 | 1 | 56.93 | 35.72 |
| West Indies* | 1994-95 | 4 | 828 | 35 | 406 | 15 | 27.07 | 4-70 | - | - | 55.20 | 49.03 |
| Pakistan | 1995-96 | 3 | 690 | 52 | 198 | 19 | 10.42 | 7-23 | 1 | 1 | 36.32 | 28.70 |
| Sri Lanka | 1995-96 | 3 | 988 | 43 | 433 | 12 | 36.08 | 4-71 | - | - | 82.33 | 43.83 |
| West Indies | 1996-97 | 5 | 1303 | 56 | 594 | 22 | 27.00 | 4-95 | - | - | 59.23 | 45.59 |
| South Africa* | 1996-97 | 3 | 798 | 47 | 282 | 11 | 25.64 | 4-43 | - | - | 72.55 | 35.34 |
| England* | 1997 | 6 | 1423 | 69 | 577 | 24 | 24.04 | 6-48 | 1 | - | 59.29 | 40.55 |
| New Zealand | 1997-98 | 3 | 1024 | 36 | 476 | 19 | 25.05 | 5-88 | 1 | - | 53.89 | 46.48 |
| South Africa | 1997-98 | 3 | 1123 | 51 | 417 | 20 | 20.85 | 6-34 | 2 | 1 | 56.15 | 37.13 |
| India* | 1997-98 | 3 | 1002 | 37 | 540 | 10 | 54.00 | 4-85 | - | - | 100.20 | 53.89 |
| England | 1998-99 | 1 | 234 | 7 | 110 | 2 | 55.00 | 1-43 | - | - | 117.00 | 47.01 |
| West Indies* | 1998-99 | 3 | 503 | 18 | 268 | 2 | 134.00 | 1-70 | - | - | 251.50 | 53.28 |
| Sri Lanka* | 1999-00 | 3 | 337 | 20 | 115 | 8 | 14.38 | 5-52 | 1 | - | 42.13 | 34.12 |
| Zimbabwe* | 1999-00 | 1 | 319 | 13 | 137 | 6 | 22.83 | 3-68 | - | - | 53.17 | 42.95 |
| Pakistan | 1999-00 | 3 | 780 | 37 | 370 | 12 | 30.83 | 5-110 | 1 | - | 64.92 | 47.50 |
| India | 1999-00 | 3 | 762 | 35 | 335 | 8 | 41.88 | 4-92 | - | - | 95.25 | 43.96 |
| New Zealand* | 1999-00 | 3 | 776 | 32 | 414 | 15 | 27.60 | 4-68 | - | - | 51.73 | 53.35 |
| India* | 2000-01 | 3 | 913 | 31 | 505 | 10 | 50.50 | 4-47 | - | - | 91.30 | 55.31 |
| England* | 2001 | 5 | 1172 | 41 | 580 | 31 | 18.71 | 7-165 | 3 | 1 | 37.81 | 49.49 |
| New Zealand | 2001-02 | 3 | 746 | 19 | 430 | 6 | 71.67 | 3-89 | - | - | 124.33 | 57.64 |
| South Africa | 2001-02 | 3 | 1041 | 35 | 473 | 17 | 27.82 | 5-113 | 1 | - | 61.24 | 45.44 |
| South Africa* | 2001-02 | 3 | 972 | 38 | 442 | 20 | 22.10 | 6-161 | 1 | - | 48.60 | 45.47 |
| Pakistan* | 2002-03 | 3 | 744 | 29 | 342 | 27 | 12.67 | 7-94 | 2 | 1 | 27.56 | 45.97 |
| England | 2002-03 | 3 | 787 | 29 | 347 | 14 | 24.79 | 4-93 | - | - | 56.21 | 44.09 |
| Sri Lanka* | 2003-04 | 1 | 346 | 14 | 159 | 10 | 15.90 | 5-43 | 2 | 1 | 34.60 | 45.95 |
| TOTAL | 108 | 30223 | 1430 | 12783 | 501 | 25.51 | 8-71 | 25 | 7 | 60.32 | 42.29 |
Performance against each country:
| Opponent | M | B | Md | R | W | Ave | Best | 5WI | 10M | SR | ER |
| England | 26 | 7792 | 408 | 3040 | 132 | 23.03 | 8-71 | 7 | 2 | 59.03 | 39.01 |
| India | 11 | 3085 | 112 | 1608 | 29 | 55.45 | 4-47 | - | - | 106.38 | 52.12 |
| New Zealand | 15 | 4409 | 209 | 1881 | 75 | 25.08 | 6-31 | 2 | - | 58.79 | 42.66 |
| Pakistan | 12 | 3304 | 168 | 1414 | 76 | 18.61 | 7-23 | 6 | 2 | 43.46 | 42.81 |
| South Africa | 18 | 6130 | 303 | 2257 | 101 | 22.35 | 7-56 | 6 | 2 | 60.69 | 36.82 |
| Sri Lanka | 9 | 1900 | 85 | 865 | 33 | 26.21 | 5-43 | 3 | 1 | 57.57 | 45.52 |
| West Indies | 16 | 3284 | 132 | 1581 | 49 | 32.27 | 7-52 | 1 | - | 67.02 | 48.14 |
| Zimbabwe | 1 | 319 | 13 | 137 | 6 | 22.83 | 3-68 | - | - | 53.17 | 42.95 |
| TOTAL | 108 | 30223 | 1430 | 12783 | 501 | 25.51 | 8-71 | 25 | 7 | 60.32 | 42.29 |
| Home | 50 | 14033 | 628 | 5885 | 225 | 26.15 | 8-71 | 12 | 4 | 62.36 | 41.94 |
| Abroad | 58 | 16190 | 802 | 6898 | 276 | 24.99 | 7-94 | 13 | 3 | 58.65 | 42.60 |
Mode of dismissals:
| Home | Away | Total | % | |
| Bowled | 40 | 43 | 83 | 16.57 |
| Caught in the field | 99 | 125 | 224 | 44.71 |
| Caught behind | 21 | 32 | 53 | 10.58 |
| Caught & bowled | 10 | 8 | 18 | 3.59 |
| Stumped | 16 | 9 | 25 | 4.99 |
| LBW | 39 | 59 | 98 | 19.56 |
| TOTAL | 225 | 276 | 501 |
Warne's bunnies:
| Alec Stewart | England | 14 times |
| Nasser Hussain | England | 11 times |
| Mike Atherton | England | 10 times |
| Graham Thorpe | England | 9 times |
| Andrew Caddick | England | 8 times |
| Hansie Cronje | South Africa | 8 times |
| Dave Richardson | South Africa | 8 times |
| Mark Butcher | England | 7 times |
| Rahul Dravid | India | 7 times |
| Darren Gough | England | 7 times |
