October 16 Wednesday 2002
McGrath set to join 400-wicket club in Pak Test

SHARJAH: Australia's premier fast bowler Glenn McGrath will have an added spring in his step when he takes the field in Saturday's final Test against Pakistan here.

McGrath needs just four wickets to join team-mate Shane Warne as the only Australian in the exclusive 400-wicket club, a feat he hopes to achieve in quick time against Pakistan. "It's been there on my mind for sometime, and it will be nice to get there in this Test," the 32-year-old said on Tuesday. "Getting to 400 will be a very amazing 
achievement. I'll be a very proud man when I get there." The 86-Test veteran hoped the milestone will inspire him to touch the 500-wicket mark, a feat achieved so far only by world record-holder Courtney Walsh, of the West 
Indies, who retired last season with 519 scalps. "That's been my aim for some time, getting to 500," McGrath said. 

"Hopefully the body will hold up till then." I work very hard off the field, the body feels pretty good. And I am quite motivated to play for Australia. I have always been a wicket-taker. The main motivation is to take wickets." Unlike Pakistan all-rounder Wasim Akram, who has stayed away from Test cricket to keep fit for next year's limited-over World Cup, McGrath still enjoys both forms of the game. "I just love to play for Australia, whether it is Tests or 
One-day Internationals," he said. "The only tough thing is to be away from the family for so long."

McGrath, who has over 250 one-day wickets, shortened his run-up during the one-day series in Kenya in September, but went back to his original mark in the first two Tests against Pakistan.

Leg-spinner Warne may have dominated the series so far with 19 wickets in two Tests, taking his overall tally to 469 , but McGrath's contribution has been invaluable. In the first Test in Colombo, McGrath claimed 1 for 40 in the first innings and 3 for 38 in the second as Australia squeezed out a hard-fought victory by 41 runs.

In the second Test played here last week in oppressive heat and humidity, McGrath closed one end up to allow Warne a free run at the other. McGrath's two first-innings wickets here cost just 10 runs from seven overs and he followed that with a brilliant 1 for 5 in six overs in the second.

"It was so hot out there that three- or four-over spells left you cooked for the rest of the day," he said. "Hope it will be a little cooler in the next Test.

"The young Pakistani batsmen did well in the first Test mainly because we had not seen them before. But we worked on a plan here and it went off pretty well. Pakistan did not have the heart to stay out there in the middle like Matthew Hayden did for us." 

Left-handed Hayden batted for more than seven hours to score his ninth Test century.

McGrath said he had not thought about next month's Ashes series against old rivals England at home. "I am concentrating on the third Test here," he said. "Hopefully we can finish this Test soon and get home early. A 3-0 sweep will be a true reading of the series."