Perth: David Warner hit a scintillating century in his farewell Test series as Australia reached 346 for five against Pakistan’s inexperienced bowlers on the opening day Thursday of the three-match series.
Warner’s commanding 164 off 211 balls — his first test century in a year — vindicated captain Pat Cummins’ decision to bat first on a hard bouncy pitch.
The 37-year-old Warner, who will be retiring after the last test in his Sydney hometown, made Pakistan toil in the first couple of sessions before he holed out at deep square leg in the last hour. He hit 16 fours and four sixes.
Mitchell Marsh was unbeaten on 15 on his home ground and Alex Carey was 14 not out after reaching the end of a great first day for Australia.
Pakistan went into the test match without a specialist spinner and handed debuts to fast bowlers Aamer Jamal (2 for 63) and Khurram Shahzad (1 for 62).
More importantly, they twice missed opportunities to dismiss Warner. Shahzad missed an overhead catch at mid-on after Warner completed his 26th test hundred, and Sarfaraz Ahmed fumbled a difficult stumping chance just before Warner reached 150.
Pakistan had its most productive period in the last session when it claimed three wickets. Shahzad had Steven Smith caught behind for 31 off a delivery that shaped away, and Travis Head on 40 and Warner went while going for aggressive shots against Jamal.
Warner, enduring a lean patch in Test cricket since his double hundred against South Africa at Melbourne last year, was criticized for being given a chance in the Perth test, but the left-hander responded in style.
He and Usman Khawaja, with 41, were ruthless during their century stand in the first session when they romped to 117 for no loss.
Warner completed his half-century off just 41 balls but slowed down after lunch. He reached his sixth Test hundred against Pakistan off 125 balls with an upper cut four off Jamal and celebrated his century with his trademark leap.
Khawaja took a backseat to Warner’s aggression before Pakistan spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi broke through after bowling 13 of Pakistan’s first 32 overs. Afridi got a faint edge of Khawaja’s outside edge after lunch.
Marnus Labuschagne, on 16, went for an unsuccessful lbw referral against seamer Faheem Ashraf. Video suggested the ball would have crashed onto his leg stump.
Earlier, Warner carried a limited-overs mindset into the test arena. He and Khawaja, wearing a black armband, set the tone by scoring 14 in the first over from Afridi.
They passed 50 in the 10th over and Warner raised his half-century in the 15th, from 41 balls, with a slashing boundary against Faheem Ashraf.
A couple of overs later, Warner went even further into one-day mode when he crouched and flipped a delivery from outside off stump way over the fine-leg boundary for his first six of the innings, following 11 boundaries.
Khawaja wasn’t allowed to wear shoes branded with an “All lives are equal” humanitarian message, so he wore a black armband instead. The International Cricket Council intervened on Wednesday after Khawaja indicated his shoes plan to highlight the loss of innocent lives in the Israel-Hamas war.
The Australians are the world Test champions. Pakistan hasn’t won a test match in Australia since 1995, and playing its second test series this year.
AP