Dismissed by Shane Warne!

I must first of all make this absolutely clear. What he said to us was deadly serious. Unambiguous. There was not a hint of irony. He meant exactly what he said.

I speak here of Paddy who is our wicketkeeper and genuinely all round nice chap. He had just been dismissed and had arrived back with those of us who were padded up and waiting to go in.

I've played cricket for twenty years and I don't really think you ever get over that feeling of nervousness before you go in to bat. You look for any piece of advice, or any hint on how to play the bowlers, particularly from those batsmen that have already been out there. You yearn for anything that will give you a little more confidence.

So, Paddy comes over to me and Dev Penn and we both look at him eagerly for some sage words. And this is what we got.

"There's nothing to worry about out there. He's doing nothing at all. All he's doing is bowling exactly like Shane Warne."

I can't speak for Dev, but I was a little concerned. I wondered if it was only me that thought this piece of news wasn't all that good. I reasoned that facing someone who could bowl like the world's leading test wicket taker, the man who has been the scourge of English cricket for the last fifteen years, ought to be a cause for some concern.

So I got out there and Paddy was not wrong. He was spinning it from leg with some ferocity. I played at every delivery in his first over to me and got nowhere near the ball.

Finally, I suffered the same fate as many English batsmen that have tried to master leg spin. After carting him for a six, a couple of fours and some scrambled singles, I top edged a sweep and was caught at backward square leg.

No one could say I hadn't been Warne-d.