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

* away series

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