Australia’s nervous wait, David Warner’s international career ends on a sour note
Needing a Bangladeshi boilover to make the semi-finals, Australia’s players nervously gathered around a TV to watch their World Cup fate decided.
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Australia nervously gathered around a TV to watch their World Cup fate go down to the wire, with beers to toast the career of David Warner put on ice as players waited in hope for a Bangladesh boilover.
The emotions of being smashed by India and facing a sudden World Cup elimination were raw for weary Australian players after play.
Bangladesh went agonisingly close to beating Afghanistan, a result that would have lifted Australia into a semi-final against South Africa, but fell short on a night of high drama and frequent rain delays in St Vincent.
It was an unfortunate way for the history-making career of Warner to come to a close, given this is the all-format great’s last international series for his country.
“We’ll give him a send-off tonight if that is the case later on. It might be a bit of a late one if the fixture finishes the way it has,” Travis Head said of plans to gather at their St Lucia hotel.
“A lot has been said about how good Davey has been at the top of the order.
“He goes down as our best multi-format player. He’ll be missed at the top of the order, but let’s hope it’s not the end of it.”
Australian quick Josh Hazlewood admitted it was bizarre territory to be in, waiting and praying for Bangladesh – coached by his former NSW coach Chandika Hathurusingha to save their bacon.
“It’d be nice for it to start at 1pm, but 8.30pm is pretty late to sort of wait on pins and needles,” Hazlewood said.
“I assume we’ll be pretty much together watching that game, and hoping for the best.
“It’s a strange feeling… You’ve got to wait until late tonight to find out. We obviously can’t do anything else than what we’ve done, and we’re hoping that Bangladesh can get the job done.”
Hazlewood said Australia had already had a taste of life without Warner in the Test format, where the batting order struggled against New Zealand and the West Indies.
But the team is waiting until they know it’s all over, until they give Warner a tribute send-off.
“Nothing has been said yet. I think we’ll wait until after the game and then (if that’s it) we’ll (celebrate) the career that’s been,” Hazlewood said.
“It’s been unbelievable. We’ll definitely miss him around the group, out on the field and off the field. He’s been an amazing all-format career.
“We’ve had Test cricket and ODI Cricket and now T20s. You’ve gotten used to it a bit in New Zealand (not having Warner there).
“It’s always different when you lose a player that’s been there for so long. We’ll move on and push forward.”
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