Hampshire captain Shane Warne described Australia's "miracle win" against England in Adelaide as the best Test match he has ever played in.

Warne finished with 4-49 to bowl England out for a second-innings 129 before Australia won by six wickets.

He said: ''The belief was there deep down that we could cause an upset but it was going to have to be a miracle win. ''This is probably best Test I have played in. Once we got that run-out and then getting Kevin Pietersen out gave us a lot of momentum and we knew we were only a couple of balls away from getting into their tail.''.

Resuming the final day at the Adelaide Oval 97 runs ahead on 59 for one, England knew that a solid batting performance would all but end Australia's slim hopes of claiming an unexpected victory.

But just as the tourists seemed to have weathered the early pressure, they lost nine wickets for 70 runs to be dismissed for 129.

That left Australia a victory target of 168, which they achieved for the loss of four wickets.

Warne finished with 4-49 from 32 overs having claimed incredible figures of 27-11-29-4 bowling unchanged from the Cathedral End all day.

That was after taking 1-167 - his worst ever Test figures - in the first innings.

It took Warne until the 11th over of the day until he made the breakthrough but the sustained pressure he exerted - restricting England to only 30 runs from 28 overs during the morning session - prompted a stunning collapse.

Andrew Strauss was the significant breakthrough when he came down the wicket in the 11th over of the day and, although the ball bounced off his pad to short leg, umpire Steve Bucknor controversially upheld the appeal.

Warne's mastery of control contributed to the next dismissal in his next over.

Ian Bell pushing nervously to point and Paul Collingwood called for a quick single, only for the Warwickshire batsman to hesitate. Former Hampshire star Michael Clarke capitalised, transferring the ball to the non-striker's end where Warne completed the run-out.

With the tourists rocked by those two setbacks, Warne snatched the third wicket to fall in a 14-ball spell by claiming the key scalp of his Hampshire teammate Kevin Pietersen.

Pietersen was bowled around his legs trying to sweep a delivery which spun enough to clip his off stump.

Having decimated the top order, Australia then turned the screw by turning to the pace of Brett Lee who struck in his second over by tempting Andrew Flintoff into a drive outside off stump which he edged behind.

Geraint Jones fell in almost identical fashion, this time chasing an even wider delivery which was caught by Matthew Hayden at third slip, while Warne bamboozled Ashley Giles with a sharply-spinning leg break which was edged to Hayden again at slip.

Warne claimed his fourth wicket of the innings with a googly that outwitted Matthew Hoggard, who attempted to drive and got an inside edge onto his stumps.

Glenn McGrath, called on for the first time in the 44th over of the day, struck immediately to have Steve Harmison trapped lbw without playing a shot and as last man James Anderson walked out to bat there were still 46 overs of the day remaining.

Anderson survived for a further 41 minutes before falling in identical fashion, leaving Collingwood unbeaten on 22 having defied Australia for over three hours at the crease.

That defiance seemed crucial when England struck twice in the opening six overs of Australia's reply with Justin Langer cutting Matthew Hoggard straight to point and Hayden being brilliantly caught by Collingwood running back to mid-wicket.

Their momentum was halted by a key partnership between captain Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey, who kept their side on course for a key victory to earn them a 2-0 lead in the series.