David Warner said his opening partner Matt Renshaw, who ended day one batting on 167, has a ‘bright future ahead of him’ © Getty Images
Victor Trumper. Charlie Macartney. Don Bradman. Majid Khan. David Warner. The only five men ever to score a Test century before lunch on the first day. No Virender Sehwag. No Chris Gayle. Just five men in the 140 years of Test history, in the 2245 Tests that have ever been played. Warner’s achievement on the first day in Sydney, when he reached the milestone in the last over before lunch, was a surprise even to him.
“It’s an honour to be alongside those names,” Warner said. “I had absolutely no idea about that stat. I knew about hundreds in a session, but not that stat at all.”
It was not the only innings of significance on the first day against Pakistan. Warner’s opening partner, Matt Renshaw, went to stumps on 167, a remarkable feat for a man of only 20 years of age. The previous-highest score Test score by any Australian as young as Renshaw was the 164 made by Archie Jackson in Adelaide in 1929. In the last over of the day, Renshaw passed Jackson’s mark.
It was a sign of how significantly Renshaw had accelerated that he was able to reach 167, for at the lunch break he was sitting on 25, while Warner had already reached triple figures. Warner said his first inkling that he might be able to bring up his hundred before lunch came when he was on 80, with about 25 minutes left in the session. In the end, he took it right to the wire, getting there off the second ball of the last over of the session.
“I kept on saying to the youngster, ‘don’t worry about me, worry about the lunch break’,” Warner said. “And I think with about eight minutes to go I walked down to him and he was blocking and leaving, and I made sure to just tell him that if it’s there you’ve got to hit it, and if there’s a single take the single.”
The penultimate over of the session had started with Warner on 94, and he took a single from the first ball, before Renshaw defensively played out the rest of the over from Mohammad Amir.
“That’s probably the first time I’ve been booed and cheered for blocking a ball in the same over,” Renshaw said. “He told me to not change my game and just keep batting and try to get to lunch. I just tried to run as fast as I could when he was on 99.”
Warner took two from the first ball of the next over, off Wahab Riaz, and then pushed the next delivery through point, where a misfield allowed Renshaw to call him back for the third run that took Warner to exactly 100. “I knew I was running to the danger end,” Renshaw said, “so I just tried to put the burners on and try and get there.”
Although Warner missed out on the chance to turn his hundred into a double-century, dismissed for 113 soon after the break, Renshaw batted on and on, gradually lifting his tempo, and after tea he celebrated the first century of his Test career.
“We saw it today, he’s got the mental capacity to get through the whole day, and get through those tough times,” Warner said of Renshaw. “There were parts when he accelerated and decelerated. But to his credit, at 20 years of age, to score a hundred like that and be not out overnight, he’s got a bright future ahead of him.”
Renshaw said he had learnt from his previous three Tests alongside Warner that there was little point trying to match him for scoring speed, and he was content to play the backup role while Warner was entertaining the crowd.
“That first session was all just a bit of a whirlwind,” Renshaw said. “Davey was absolutely smoking them and I was just trudging along on not many. I was trying not to keep up with him, like I have done in the past apparently. He keeps telling me that I’m not going to keep up with him too much, and I didn’t try at all today.”
There was one moment of concern for the Australians when Renshaw, on 91, was struck a fierce blow to the helmet by a bouncer from Amir, and needed attention from the team doctor Peter Brukner. However, Renshaw passed the relevant concussion tests, batted on, and by stumps was eyeing off a potential double-hundred.
“He asked me if I was okay,” Renshaw said of Brukner. “I was fine, so I just wanted to be out there. I didn’t want to retire hurt on 91 … he asked me the score, and who the last person out was, but I got them pretty right. I think I was four runs off the score, so not too bad.”
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo