Warne has England in a spin

Shane Warne claimed the 700th wicket of his astonishing Test career to help dismiss England for a lowly 159 on the opening day of the fourth Ashes Test in Melbourne.

The world's greatest leg-spinner took just 20 deliveries to claim the wicket he required to reach the milestone and went on to claim five for 39, the 37th five-wicket haul of his career, as Australia dominated at the MCG.

The Boxing Day crowd of 89,155 had all turned up to see if Warne could reach the milestone and England obliged, firstly by winning the toss and deciding to bat and then by suffering another collapse.

Having progressed to 101 for two, England lost eight for 58 with Warne wrapping up the innings of a rain-hit opening day by claiming the last three wickets.

Australia's seamers dominated the early stages in ideal conditions, but once Warne was given his chance in the 47th over of the innings he wasted no time in striking.

Tempting opener Andrew Strauss into driving off the front foot in his fourth over of the spell, Warne delivered a sharply-turning leg-break which spun into the stumps.

Warne's breakthrough followed just two balls after Paul Collingwood had edged fast bowler Brett Lee to Ricky Ponting at second slip to end an encouraging 57-run partnership between the pair.

It was England's last stand of any note with Warne claiming only his third five-wicket haul at his home ground after seamer Stuart Clark claimed the key breakthrough of England captain Andrew Flintoff shortly after tea, edging to the leg-spinner at first slip.

Warne claimed his second victim when Chris Read, recalled after England decided to drop under-fire wicketkeeper Geraint Jones, drove straight to short extra cover seven overs later.

Veteran seamer Glenn McGrath claimed an overdue success with Sajid Mahmood edging behind and Warne took his tally to 702 when Steve Harmison drove him straight to mid-on. The key wicket was that of Hampshire team-mate Kevin Pietersen, who battled for over 100 minutes at the crease for his 21 before holing out to Andrew Symonds at long on.