During this year's Ashes tour Shane Warne admitted he had learned nothing from a few months' ruminations on VVS Laxman's famous 281 at Calcutta - an innings that turned a Test match and a series. Laxman had attacked Warne in a rare display of daring and skill. In green and pleasant Worcester at the start of the Ashes tour Warne said he would do nothing differently the next time someone tried a Laxman on him. It was just simply a great innings.

Few batsmen in the past decade have been game enough to come down the pitch to the great legspinner. Of those who have, most have been embarrassed and of those who have succeeded, most have been tall and have used their extra reach to telling effect.

Graeme Hick did it once or twice. Before he fell from grace, match-fixer Hansie Cronje was capable of hitting Warne far and wide. Chris Cairns did it in the series in New Zealand in 1999-2000 - and one shot today offered a taster of one of the more enticing contests we might see in this low-key series.

Very early on in his brief undefeated innings, Cairns did a Laxman. He came down at Warne, faded a little towards leg and crashed a drive, with the spin, through extra cover for four. Most of Laxman's runs came from brilliant on-drives, hit out of the rough and against the spin. Occasionally, to confirm his superiority, Laxman would play that inside-out cover-drive. They were outstanding shots.

Cairns has got at Warne before, and in the past there has been little respect between the two. The Australians used to think Cairns was soft. But he has countered that judgment by developing into an outstanding allrounder over the past few years.

Cairns's cover-drive today was a bold statement of intent. He will use his reach and his clean hitting power to take the battle to Warne. This could be the best one-on-one contest of this series – the great legspinner against the fine attacking strokeplayer with the same belligerent attitude to every ball.

Most observers have seen this series as a mere opener for the real business of the summer: the series between the world champions and the best of the contenders, the South Africans.

But Cairns versus Warne may provide some of the best entertainment of this season. And wherever he is VVS Laxman, like the rest of us, will be watching a television in fascination.

Mark Ray has covered Australian cricket since 1987 and is also the author of a number of books on the game.

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