Shane Warne has pleaded for some recovery time on the beach in Durban after transforming his 100th Test into the most memorable match of his career.

Warne figured in each of the four innings in the second Test in Cape Town, winning the player-of-the-match award in Australia's four-wicket win.

Captain Steve Waugh joked that Warne wrote the script for his milestone match after taking 8-231 from 98 overs and scoring 63 and 15 not out, but Waugh agreed Australia would have been out of business if not for the leg-spinner.

Australia and South Africa have just two days to recover from their gripping Cape Town battle before meeting again in the series finale at Kingsmead.

"I'll wake up and it will probably be a dream. I'll probably get 0-200 in the next Test and come down to earth," Warne said.

"The way I'm feeling at the moment it probably does pip the (first Test in Sri Lanka in 1992) as my favourite.

"From my own individual point of view this was probably my favourite Test but I'm very tired and I've probably dropped a couple of extra kilos.

"But hopefully (coach) John Buchanan and Steve Waugh will give us some time at the beach in the next two days because otherwise I wouldn't fancy having to bowl for another day-and-a-half on Friday."

Warne has 37 wickets from eight Tests in a season which included a rough time against New Zealand's adventurous batsmen.

"After the first few Tests against New Zealand, Buck (Buchanan) asked me to talk to the team about how I was going because I was just feeling frustrated," Warne said.

"I thought I was bowling well but there were no results.

"But it's impossible to have a good game all the time. You're going to go through the ups and downs.

"It's how you deal with that, and at times we've probably all made a few mistakes along the way.

"In my situation there has been a hell of a lot of good times and not too many bad times."

© 2002 AAP