Innings of his life: David Warner’s last knock a miniature of his Test career

Embracing Steve Smith and then leaving Test cricket forever, David Warner gave us something to remember him by as he marched into retirement.

Farewell innings can be memorable for all sorts of reasons.

Sir Donald Bradman’s in 1948, of course, was unforgettable for being a duck; Greg Chappell’s at the SCG in 1984 for an innings of 182 that took him beyond Bradman’s runs tally.

David Warner embraces Steve Smith as he leaves the Test arena for the final time.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Forty years later, and Warner’s final knock was apt in a multitude of ways. It captured, in miniature, so much of what had made him special.

For a start, a tally of 57 neatly matched his career average on home soil – 57.85 per innings, a mark that helped ensure Australia lost just three home series in which he played.

There was the theatre of the occasion, complete with the words “Thanks Dave” stencilled onto the outfield where he walked onto the field for his last day at the crease – fittingly accompanied by his close friend Usman Khawaja.

When they started out for the middle, Khawaja acknowledged how great the journey had been together. So choked up did Warner become that this most voluble of cricketers was unable to muster any words in response.

After the emotion, the innings also featured plenty of invention, as Warner took shots out of his kitbag that he has long used to inconvenience bowlers.

Third ball, after watching Khawaja fall to the most marginal of lbw decisions in the first over of the chase, Warner advanced down the track to Mir Hamza, letting the left-armer know that he would not offer a stationary target.

The fourth ball Warner sliced behind point for what was once a single. His industrious running between the wickets has been as much a part of his plans to unsettle bowlers and fielders as any of the shots he played, and one duly became two.

Warner’s first boundary was also fitting. Among his greatest assets was an ability to turn back-of-a-length deliveries – often dangerous in Australia given the bounce on offer here – into scoring options with his balance, eyes and hands to carve forcing shots through the off side. Hamza was the last new-ball bowler to experience one such delivery being summarily dispatched to the cover rope.

There were creative shots aplenty. One attempted ramp brought no reward, but Warner made life challenging for Pakistani spinners Sajid Khan and Salman Agha by reverse sweeping with alacrity, and then advancing down the track to clip over long-on more than once.

Undoubtedly, Warner’s way has required a modicum of good fortune, and he enjoyed some on his final day also. An inside edge off Hasan Ali slid centimetres past the leg stump; a miscue down the ground narrowly evaded the outstretched hand of mid-on; a Sajid delivery was dug out just before it skidded through to the stumps, and a bat/pad squeeze flew just beyond short-leg.

Warner, though, has made his fortune by continuing to attack. The times when he has struggled, especially overseas, have generally arrived when he was unable to push himself to do so.

A pair of cracking cover drives, out of the rough from the bowling of Salman, underlined Warner's skill, and delivered him a half century that was met with the warmest of ovations from a crowd that swelled to a handsome 24,220 by the end. In all, 125,292 spectators had turned up to a sunny SCG to farewell Warner over four days.

While Marnus Labuschagne's busy and unbeaten 62 ensured that there was no chance of Warner charging to a valedictorian century, the left-hander remained compulsively watchable to the last.

After lunch, Warner survived a Sajid lbw appeal that was found to be umpire’s call on review – more out than Khawaja. With 11 runs to get, he charged at the line but not the length and was nearly stumped.

Warner waves goodbye to the SGC crowd.Credit: Fox Cricket

And finally, Sajid whirred down another slider that struck Warner in front. This time, despite the umpire Michael Gough's not out verdict, ball-tracking confirmed three reds, and Warner spun on his heels after a last handshake from Pakistan's tourists, who have also given him a guard of honour in each innings.

To be out, lbw, to off spin sliding into Warner's pads was appropriate as a not uncommon mode of dismissal over the years, especially since Stuart Broad was neither still playing Test cricket nor eligible for Pakistan.

It also allowed the SCG to stand warmly to give a last tribute to the man of the moment, as he offered a 360-degree wave of the bat and a smile for Smith, the next man in.

If it remains to be seen which way the selectors will go, Smith's embrace of Warner at the boundary's edge was not just symbolic of a potential change of the guard at the top of the order. Their hug was also a moment of completion for a long-running tandem in good times and bad.

Smith and Warner were unveiled as captain and deputy in 2015, then infamously stripped of their roles in Cape Town three summers later. Warner will never be able to escape that fact, but that final act on a Test match field brought his career to a point of consolation: he and Smith shared an awful lot of great times too.

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