Warner breaks Test century drought after 1089 days in 100th appearance
Australia lost two quick wickets as they chased to go past South Africa's first-innings score of 189, leaving Warner with not just the task to prove his worth, but also to offer a stable partnership alongside Steve Smith. Fighting valiantly against the South Africa attack, Warner eventually reached the mark that has long eluded him, with a stunning boundary against Kagiso Rabada. And thus followed his trademark jump.
A week back former Australia captain Ricky Ponting had urged a struggling David Warner to carefully consider if he wants to bring an end to his Test career. The Australian opener has long been struggling in the longest format, scoring just four fifties in 27 innings since his last Test hundred back in January 2020. The comment came just a few days after Warner withdrew his bid to have his lifetime captaincy ban overturned.
But Warner bounced back in style and he couldn't have found a more fitting scene to answer back his critics as he scored a century in his 100th Test appearance for Australia, in the second Test against South Africa in Melbourne.
Australia lost two quick wickets as they chased to go past South Africa's first-innings score of 189, leaving Warner with not just the task to prove his worth, but also to offer a stable partnership alongside Steve Smith. Fighting valiantly against the South Africa attack, Warner eventually reached the mark that has long eluded him, with a stunning boundary against Kagiso Rabada. And thus followed his trademark jump.
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Warner was more ecstatic than ever with a knock that spoke a thousand words and silenced hundreds, who had doubted him. There was a lot of talk about his leadership ban and about his Test career amid the lack of runs over the last 1089 days, but Warner silenced all of it with one gem of a knock.
And to get to the long-eluded mark in his 100th Test appearance makes it even more special as Warner became only the second Aussie cricketer to achieve this rare feat. Ponting was the only other. Overall, he became the 10th batter to do so.
En route to the knock, Warner also reached the milestone of 8000 Test runs, becoming the eighth Australian batter to the feat. Overall, this was his 25th Test ton, which is the fifth highest among openers in the format, after Sunil Gavaskar (33), Alastair Cook (31), Matthew Hayden (30) and Graeme Smith (27). This was also his 45th century across formats, which is the second-most among active players after Virat Kohli (72), and the joint-most as openers in world cricket, putting his name alongside the legendary Sachin Tendulkar.
