Warne, playing his first match after a one-year ban, began the Galle Test on 491 while Murali was on 485.

BBC Sport charted their day-to-day tussle through the opening Test of Australia's series in Sri Lanka.

Australia were far from certain of victory going into the final day, but Warne was, and the 500-wicket milestone became a step along the way.

Warne was overjoyed to reach 500

The leg-spinner's arrival into the attack brought an immediate wicket as Marvan Atapattu edged to slip.

In the very next over, Tillakaratne Dilshan found himself unable to repeat his first innings century when he was lbw for six.

Mahela Jayawardene was number 499, slip fielder Matthew Hayden taking a second catch.

And the long-awaited moment came when Sri Lanka skipper Hashan Tillakaratne skied an ill-advised sweep for Andrew Symonds to collect at mid-wicket.

On a day dominated by Australian fourth-wicket pair Damien Martyn and Darren Lehmann, Muralitharan's haul was more a reward for long service than individual excellence.

Murali dismissed both men, after they had shared a stand of 206, by gaining enough turn on a pitch becoming gradually slower to dismiss Martyn prodding and Lehmann slashing.

His remaining three scalps came cheaply, including Warne himself for a duck, to take the two men back level at 496.

Opening the bowling for just the third time in his career, Warne conceded two runs in two overs of the Sri Lankan reply.

At the end of Wednesday's play there was only one bowler who could make it past 500 in the first Test.

He had toiled through the second day for minimal reward but wickets came Warne's way as two tailenders fell to sharp leg-spinners. The third, Murali, offered a return catch.

Nine short of the milestone, Murali could not make a single breakthrough despite bowling 22 overs, as Matthew Hayden and Justin langer played confidently.

It took fellow spinner Sanath Jayasuriya to dismiss Langer and when Ricky Ponting was run out 11 overs before stumps, Sri Lanka's star spinner knew he would have to wait at least until the secodn Test to pass 500.

Warne hardly needed reminding how many wickets Murali was on

Warne had a tough day on Tuesday, collecting a solitary wicket as Sri Lanka moved from their overnight score of 81-1 to 352-6.

He was picked off for boundaries by most of Sri Lanka's batsmen, with centurion Tillakaratne Dilshan hitting him for a six over long on for good measure.

And worse was to come when Warne then dropped Dilshan in the slips off Michael Kasprowicz.

In the final over the day, an Upul Chandana cut for four took Warne over the 100-mark for runs conceded in the innings.

Starting the day on 485 wickets to Warne's 491, Muralitharan needed just 21.3 overs to draw level with his rival by taking 6-59 - his first haul of five or more against Australia.

Three left-handed batsmen - in previous years his Achilles heal - all fell to Murali.

Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist chased traditional off-breaks while Darren Lehmann fell for 63 to his new leg-spinner.

And with Andrew Symonds and two tail-enders completely bamboozled it was a perfect start for the 31-year-old from Kandy.

But Warne, looking trimmer than ever, trapped Sanath Jayasuriya lbw in his third over to nose back ahead.