SYDNEY FIVE-FER: DAY THREE

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Warne's innings was an epic effort.

1: Adam Gilchrist
Gilchrist - who hit himself into form with that astounding innings in the third Test - played a similar, if slightly less destructive knock at the SCG. It was a joy to watch, until Billy Bowden gave him out after he hit the ground chasing a wide one. It was a shocker of a decision, and was lucky for England because if Warne and Gilchrist had continued in the same vain then the 102 first-innings deficit could have been much worse.

2: Shane Warne
It shows what a player this man is that he makes the list for the third day in a row, in a Test when he's picked up only two wickets and bowled pretty poorly. The last thing on Warne's list of 'Things To Do Before I Retire' would have been 'Get a Test Hundred', and he did his darndest to cross that one off today. However, he just ran out of partners. 71 from just 65 balls is an epic effort by anyone's standards, and many of those runs were scored with 'proper' cricket shots rather than slogs. The fact that he gloved Panesar to Read on 10 can be glossed over at this point. Goodbye Warney, you will be missed.

3: Paul Collingwood
It's pretty fashionable to want 'In-Your-Face' cricketers who 'back themselves' etc and so on. But was there really any need/point for Paul Collingwood to wind-up Warne enough to start slapping the England bowlers around for the majority of the afternoon? In any case, if I was the solid and dependable but nowhere near great player Collingwood, I might think twice about giving the best spinner of all time some stick. Warne put Collingwood firmly in his place by enquiring why he got an MBE for scoring seven. Fair cop Paul.

4: Andrew Strauss
I for one thought Andrew Strauss would be England's top run-scorer of the series, so his form has been hugely disappointing. However he deserves great credit for getting straight back up and batting after being damned near brained by a Brett Lee brute of a bouncer. That could easily have shaken the opener up, and nobody would have blamed him if he went off. In the end, he got an excellent delivery from Clark that nipped back and would have dismissed most left-handers.

5: Good old fashioned line and length
Australia's bowling in the evening session was a lesson in how to get wickets through pure frustration. They bowled tight, off-stump lines to stem the flow of runs and tempt the England batsmen into playing rash shots. This worked with Bell and Collingwood of all people, while Pietersen - the man such a tactic was made for - showed remarkable patience to reach 29 off 92 balls.