‘A very special feeling’
Cameron Green might have trousered more than $3 million from last week's Indian Premier League auction, but there's little doubt he will cherish the faux goldleaf used to paint names on the MCG honour board just as highly after today's five-wicket bag.
Green's 5-27 on day one of their second Test against South Africa not only represented his first such haul in Test company, it came on the day cricket remembered the late Shane Warne who was the most recent Australia men's player to compete that feat on Boxing Day.
After the visitors were dismissed for 189, an aggressive David Warner, in his 100th Test, was unbeaten on 32 and Marnus Labuschagne was not out on five to steer the hosts to 45-1 at stumps on day one.
Usman Khawaja was out for one, caught behind by Kyle Verreynne off Kagiso Rabada.
"That's cricket summed up," Green told reporters. "You can have a really slow start to the summer and think cricket's so tough and then you have a few days like this, and it brings you back.
"It's a very special feeling (getting five wickets)."
No Australia bowler had claimed a Boxing Day five-for since Warne until today, when Green announced himself as a bowler of rare quality and threat in much the same way Warne had done 30 years ago at the same venue, when he scythed through the then-mighty West Indies.
Green understands the symbolic significance of the Melbourne Test's opening day, and its place in the nations sporting psyche.
"Everyone's focus is on Boxing Day," Green said at day's end, when asked whether producing his finest Test moment thus far on such a poignant date was the stuff of dreams.
"It's a fixture that you point out at the start of the year, and you look forward to."
Australia won the first of three Tests by six wickets inside two days on a hostile and green Gabba pitch in Brisbane last week.
The deck at the Melbourne Cricket Ground was less bowler-friendly, but captain Pat Cummins surprisingly chose to field at a venue where toss-winning teams normally bat first.
It proved to be an inspired decision in front of 64,876 fans with the Proteas losing early wickets.
After slumping to 67-5, Verreynne and Marco Jansen launched a stirring fightback in a gutsy 112-run stand.
Green claimed 4-7 in a remarkable two-over spell and then raised the ball for the euphoric crowd to acknowledge his maiden Test five-for, in the same manner Warne had in his final Boxing Day outing 16 years earlier.