Shane Warne again proved himself cricket's greatest show-stopper and rated his latest milestone one of the best days of his life.

Warne became the first man to take 700 Test wickets when he bowled England opener Andrew Strauss in his final appearance before a packed MCG, and he wasn't finished there.

His 5-39 put Australia on track for a fourth successive win this series as England was bowled out for 159 after winning the toss.

It was an enormous occasion even for cricket's great show man, as six days after announcing he would retire after this series, Warne turned the biggest day of Australia's cricket calendar into his own triumphant encore.

He launched into a run when he bowled Strauss, and a crowd of 89,155 - which had been chanting for him to bowl for 40 overs - erupted.

"Whoever writes my scripts is doing an unbelievable job, so keep going," Warne said.

"The way it's turned out, I've just been sitting there ... (I) can't stop shaking my head and believing it's happened. It was a pretty amazing day.

"There's some special things that happen in your life and there's some special days in your life and that's definitely one of them.

"The birth of your children, getting married, playing your first Test are all pretty special, but that one today from an individual point of view, that's got to be one of the best days I've ever had."

Warne got a gentle nudge from captain Ricky Ponting to lead Australia out before play began, and then had the satisfaction of leading his team off after a 37th five-wicket bag.

Australia reached 2-48 in reply having lost Justin Langer (27) and nightwatchman Brett Lee (duck) in successive deliveries to England captain Andrew Flintoff.

But the home side will begin day two well-placed to grab control of the match on a wicket which should improve for batting.

Early rain threatened to turn the day into a frustrating one, and it wasn't until the 41st over, when Warne came on amid a standing ovation from fans, the match came to life.

It took him three overs to warm up on a bitterly cold day, but he sent his 20th delivery crashing into Strauss' middle stump, which left the England vice-captain one of Warne's most celebrated victims.

"(Glenn) McGrath said to me 'How are you going to get him out?, and I said I'd bowl him through the gate, sweeping," Warne said.

"Then in that over I bowled him through the gate, but it wasn't sweeping, it was driving.

"I tried to slow the pace up. When that sort of stuff happens you know something's going right for you.

"I was going to keep running (in celebration), but I was knackered and got puffed, so I stopped. It was pretty special."

McGrath, also playing his penultimate Test, bowled better than figures of 1-37 suggested, while Lee (2-36) and Stuart Clark (2-27) proved themselves capable of heading the Australian attack beyond this series with impressive displays.

Australia's bowlers were aided by a grass-tinged pitch and cloudy conditions, and Strauss admitted it was the sort of toss captains did not mind losing.

"It was one of those tosses where we felt the right thing to do was bat and we still feel that, but it was one of those that if you lost it you wouldn't have felt too bad," Strauss said.

"It (the wicket) probably did a little bit more than we expected it to, but we didn't feel it was going to change dramatically over the first day-and-a-half."

Strauss top-scored with 50, but there was little offered from England besides Paul Collingwood (28) and Kevin Pietersen (21), as the last eight wickets fell for 58 runs.

"It was frustrating because we battled hard for the first couple of sessions where it was nipping around, and we got ourselves in a position where we could go on and post a decent score but that wasn't to be," Strauss said.

Warne's haul has him 30 wickets clear of Muttiah Muralitharan, but the legspinner reiterated his long-held belief the Sri Lankan would one day close in on 1,000 Test scalps.

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