Kolkata: The awesome Aussie, David Warner continued with his good form scoring a quick fire century which is also his 18th, against Pakistan in Sydney in the third Test of the series against Pakistan.
The swashbuckling left-hander scored at a really good pace as he
reached the three-figure mark before lunch in just 78 balls. He hit 17 boundaries in his knock and he occupied the crease for 117 minutes. His partner Matthew Renshaw, who too is in a good run of form scored his maiden ton as he occupied the crease for 282 minutes.
Warner now has become the first Australian since Don Bradman to score a century before lunch in a Test match. He became the fourth batsman after Bradman, Victor Trumper and Charlie Macartney to achieve this rare feat. He is, however the first batsman to achieve this feat in Australia.
The opener bettered his own record of his fastest century at
the SCG which had come of 82 balls against the West Indies last year.
However he felt agonisingly short of former Indian opener Virender Sehwag’s record of the earliest century in the first innings of a test match since 2001.Warner took 26.2 overs to reach to his century while Sehwag had achieved this feat in 25.2 overs against the West Indies in St.Lucia in 2006. He was dismissed for 113 by Wahab Riaz just after lunch.
This is what Warner had to say,” That’s obviously an honour and
privilege to be amongst the greats of the game. It’s great to be out there with those guys. Hopefully I can continue with that great start and positive approach. I started last year with a hundred here (against the West Indies) and I started here with another hundred here and I’ve got to capitalise on that.”
The Australian vice-captain now has scored 5206 runs in the 60 tests that he has played so far and has an average of 49.11.
While he smashed the Pakistan bowlers all round the park, his partner Matthew Renshaw had a more steady approach occupying almost five hours to bring up his maiden ton.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Australia had a good day at the
office as they ended the day on 365 /3 with Renshaw unbeaten on 167 and Peter Handscomb batting on 40. They are sharing an unbroken fourth wicket stand of 121.