Boxing Day Test: David Warner brings critics to their knees

In the end the effort brought him to his knees when nothing else could. David Warner – under the pump to retain his place in the side — reached 200 in his 100th Test and had nothing left.

David Warner celebrates his double century on day two of the second Test against South Africa. Picture: Getty Images

In the end the effort brought him to his knees when nothing else to this point could.

David Warner – under the pump to retain his place in the side, fighting the demons that have dogged much of his extraordinary career – brought up a double hundred in his 100th Test and had nothing left.

Medical staff helped him from the MCG late on the second day, retired hurt, his cramped body pushed beyond exhaustion on a day when temperatures reached the high 30s and emotions bubbled at similar temperatures.

Warner was defiant and daunting. He’d batted for six hours, scored his first hundred in two years and gestured triumphantly to the crowd. Who were we to doubt him?

He blew kisses to his delighted wife Candice, their three children and his parents, who were all in the crowd.

“He told me when he was 14 that one day he will play for Australia and buy us a unit, to get us out of the Housing Commission,” his mother Lorraine Warner said.

“And he did.”

Weeks earlier Warner had stormed away from a leadership ban appeals process he described as a “witch trial” saying he would not subject his teammates or family to any more opprobrium from 2018’s sandpaper scandal.

He’d hoped to have a lifetime ban removed, but found the process too onerous.

Warner is a chance to break a record – Joe Root’s 218 in his 100th Test – if he returns to the crease on Wednesday.

The Australians reported that he’d been placed in an ice bath but was still cramping in different parts of his body.

Warner is helped from the ground after retiring hurt upon reaching 200. Picture: Michael Klein

Love him or loathe him, Warner cannot be denied his place among the greats of the game in this country and all who play the traditional game.

Nor can he be denied the chance to carry on to India should he choose.

On a day when the heat was cruel and the South African quicks were questioning, he took his legend to another level.

Warner became just the second Australian, after Ricky Ponting, to score a century in his 100th Test.

Nine in the history of the game had done it before him, but he is only the second, after Root, to score 200 in the career landmark.

On the way he became just the eighth Australian to pass 8000 Test runs.

He also joins Mark Taylor and Matthew Hayden as the only Australians to play 100 games at the top of the order where the going is most perilous.

To have the ability to will a century on the occasion is a hint of how much such players rise to the biggest moments.

Warner gave the innings his all, like he always has. He doesn’t do things by half.

He leapt higher than he ever had and celebrated with as much emotion as he ever had on reaching his first century since 2020. He acknowledged his cherished family and those who had endured the heat and his emotional embrace with Steve Smith

The South Africans were a sorry sight in the field as Australia reached 3-386 and took a 197-run lead that will only get bigger, but they lost a few on the way and may be short-handed come the bowling innings.

Both Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green have had to leave the field with injuries to fingers on their bowling hands.

Starc will miss the SCG Test and will need at least six weeks to recover from the ligament damage. Green, who took his first five-wicket haul in the first innings, also left the field after being struck by Anrich Nortje.

If it is serious it could also cost Green the $3.15m he picked up in last week’s Indian Premier League auction, but that tournament is some time away.

Additional reporting: Ben Horne