The World XI face the twin leg-spin menace of Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill to somehow conjure a come-from-behind victory against Australia in the Super Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground here on Sunday. FALL OF WICKETS: 1-30, 2-152, 3-160, 4-167, 5-167, 6-170, 7-177, 8-192, 9-195, 10-199
The world all-stars will have to battle against the odds to pull off an improbable victory after they were set 355 runs to win the one-off Test on a turning SCG pitch with three scheduled days left to play.
But they got off to a horror start losing both openers Graeme Smith and Virender Sehwag inside the first six overs.
Smith was bowled by the fifth ball of Glenn McGrath's opening over and bad light concerns forced skipper Ricky Ponting to bring on spin twins Warne and MacGill after just two overs to enable play to continue for a further six overs in the gloom.
MacGill coaxed a bottom inside-edge off Sehwag into Gilchrist's gloves for seven to send the world team tottering to 18 for two.
When bad light ended play 33 overs short, the World XI were 25 for two and still 330 runs adrift of an unlikely win.
New Indian captain Rahul Dravid was not out 17 with Brian Lara, needing a restorative innings, yet to score.
Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison and Muttiah Muralitharan earlier triggered an Australian batting collapse of 9-47 off 23.4 overs to give the World XI a glimmer of hope.
Australia tumbled from 152 for one to all out for 199 with Muralitharan, Harmison and Flintoff all finishing with three wickets.
The Australians, cushioned by a 155-run innings lead, frittered away an opportunity to bat the world all-stars out of the one-off Test match, although they will have to contend with Warne and MacGill, who combined to take seven wickets in the first innings.
Flintoff claimed the wickets of Ponting (54), all-rounder Shane Watson (10) and Warne (7) to finish with 3-48 off 16 overs.
Muralitharan was at his mesmerising best, bamboozling Simon Katich (2), Adam Gilchrist (1) and McGrath (2) to come away with 3-55 from 24 overs.
Harmison clean bowled topscorer Matthew Hayden (77) and Michael Clarke (5) and had Brett Lee caught in the deep for three to capture 3-41 off 12.3 overs.
Harmison struck twice before lunch to trigger the collapse with the wickets of Hayden and Clarke.
Hayden was on course for his third consecutive Test hundred after a dismal Ashes series in England before the Durham fast-bowling giant struck in his ninth over.
Hayden scored 111 in Australia's first innings but he was bowled by a Harmison yorker for 77, put together in 189 minutes off 120 balls and breaking a 122-run partnership with Ponting.
Clarke only lasted eight balls before he was bowled for five in Harmison's next over.
Ponting added two runs to his lunch-time score before he was caught by wicketkeeper Mark Boucher off Flintoff for 54.
Katich looked flummoxed against Muralitharan and gave a return catch to the Sri Lankan for two in the next over.
Gilchrist, who narrowly missed out on a century in the first innings with a typical swashbuckling 94, went for one off three balls, caught at slip by Jacques Kallis off Muralitharan as Australia lost scoring momentum.
Warne survived a referred close-in catch, but paddled a catch to Rahul Dravid at mid-wicket for seven, giving Flintoff his second wicket in five overs.
Watson went to a referred catch behind for 10 in an hour attempting to hook and giving Flintoff his third wicket.
Gloomy light prevented play for 75 minutes after tea and the Australian innings quickly folded when play resumed. Muralitharan snared McGrath's wicket and Lee hit out to Harmison.
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AUSTRALIA (1st innings):
345 (M. Hayden 111, A. Gilchrist 94;
A. Flintoff 4-59):
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WORLD XI (1st innings):
190 (V. Sehwag 76, J. Kallis 44;
S. MacGill 4-39, S. Warne 3-23):
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AUSTRALIA (2nd innings
- 66 for 1 overnight):
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J. Langer c Smith b Kallis 22
M. Hayden b Harmison 77
R. Ponting c Boucher b Flintoff 54
M. Clarke b Harmison 5
S. Katich c and b Muralitharan 2
A. Gilchrist c Kallis b Muralitharan 1
S. Watson c Boucher b Flintoff 10
S. Warne c Dravid b Flintoff 7
B. Lee c Muralitharan b Harmison 3
G. McGrath c Smith b Muralitharan 2
S. MacGill not out 0
EXTRAS: (B-7, LB-7, NB-2) 16
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TOTAL (all out, 65.3 overs) 199
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BOWLING: Harmison 12.3-2-41-3, Flintoff 16-2-48-3 (1nb), Kallis 3-1-3-1, Muralitharan 24-5-55-3, Vettori 10-0-38-0 (1nb)
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WORLD XI (2nd innings):
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G. Smith b McGrath 0
V. Sehwag c Gilchrist b MacGill 7
R. Dravid not out 17
B. Lara not out 0
EXTRAS: (LB-1) 1
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TOTAL: (for 2 wkts, 8 overs) 25
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FALL OF WICKETS: 1-0, 2-18
BOWLING: McGrath 1-1-0-1, Lee 1-0-4-0, Warne 3-0-13-0, MacGill 3-1-7-1
Bad light ended play at 5:08pm (0808 GMT)
TOSS: Australia
UMPIRES: Simon Taufel (AUS) Rudi Koertzen (RSA)
VIDEO UMPIRE: Darrell Hair (AUS)
MATCH REFEREE: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI)
CROWD: 23,377.