Warner doubles down on doubters with defiant double century

Dave Warner got a hundred in his 100th Test. Then he doubled down He ground the tourists into the dirt to chase the vultures from their perch.

David Warner celebrates upon reaching 200. Picture: Michael Klein.

Dave Warner got a hundred in his 100th Test. Then he doubled down. Of course he did. He ground the tourists into the dirt, chased the vultures from their perch, ensured those who doubted him ate their words, and those that questioned his place looked foolish.

The emotional and undefeated double hundred in his 100th Test match removes all doubt the batsman will be on the tour of India and play the Test Championship game in England mid year.

Australia took a 197-run lead on the second day, reaching 3-386 at stumps, and Warner can bat again in the innings despite retiring on 200 with cramp, while Travis Head (48no) and Alex Carey (9no) continue on day three.

Celebrations were tempered by finger injuries to Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green.

Starc is out for at least six weeks with ligament damage from an incident in the field and, although the team said he can bowl in this game, the damaged middle digit is critical to his seam position.

Green, who took five wickets on Boxing Day, was a victim – not the first – of Anrich Nortje’s surprising bounce.

The youngster had his finger jammed into the bat. Blood was drawn but the real concern must be a break to the first digit on his bowling hand.

Warner was helped off and was reportedly cramping in various parts of his body after raising the 200. He can bat again in the innings and may wish to given the chance to knock off Joe Root’s record 218 in his 100th match.

The innings guarantees Warner’s career will continue to India and perhaps beyond.

This was always the plan, but a recent run of outs and odd dismissals had raised doubts. Would he lose the selector’s faith, would he lose the urge to go on? Both scenarios look ridiculous now.

The farce over his leadership ban appeal took some wind out of his sails early in the summer, the run of low scores more so, but Warner is nothing but defiant – in many ways it is his super power.

They said he wouldn’t play Test cricket. They said he shouldn’t be allowed to play Test cricket. Only one game before they said he would never play Test cricket again like he had at his peak.

Warner has been proving the critics and experts wrong for more than a decade but surely there was never a sweeter moment than this.

He brought up the first milestone on a hot, hard day at the MCG and leapt higher, celebrated longer, than for any of the hundreds that preceded it.

The embrace with his fellow traveller, Steve Smith, was sustained and emotional. The pair share a lot of history, some of it better than others.

This Test is only the second against South Africa since that incident in March, 2018.

Their partnership of 239 from 337 was the sort of epic their relationship deserved. It was a shame that Smith fell 15 runs short of his 30th hundred, but the day was Dave’s and if anybody deserved some reward for effort it was Nortje who bowled with enormous heart and deserved better return.

Unfortunately his teammates dropped catches and their heads.

But Warner holds his high.

At the MCG, with the vultures gathered, he became only the 10th batsman in the history of Test cricket to score a century in his 100th Test match.

On the way he became just one of nine Australians to score 8000 runs. The third Australian opener to play 100 games at the top of the order, and one of the very few to score three centuries at all this country’s major venues.

Haters got to hate, but Warn­er’s CV demands the rest to accept the endurance, talent and tenacity of the boy from Matraville.

Smith was full of praise for Warner afterwards rating his innings one of the best he’d seen from the powerful left-hander.

“It would have to be right up there. They’re a quality attack. They’re great bowlers. He played exceptionally well from ball one yesterday,” Smith said.

“He played beautifully. The more he started to cramp the more shots he started to play and everything seemed to be coming out of the middle,’’ Smith said.

“It was an amazing knock and nice to be up the other end for a large chunk of it.

“I t was just like, ‘keep batting’. He was like, ‘I’m cramping.’ “I was like, ‘Good. Just keep going.’ ”

Warner’s 24th Test century came in January 2020 against New Zealand and it has been a lean period since. He’s 36 now and the feeling was he would never get there again, but after a long, difficult spell in the 90s he got the runs to ensure his name is engraved alongside the greats of the game.

It was appropriate, given who he is and what he’s been through, that he had to fight so hard for it. He really earned this one. Nortje roughed him up and demanded he find a way if he was to get there.

He had a bit of luck, but openers deserve a bit of luck for being bold enough to face the new ball.

While in the 90s he had his finger jammed into the bat by Nortje and it might just have been the shake up he needed to knuckle down and get to three figures – in the first half-hour after lunch he’d attempted a few perilous parries.

Warner’s back-to-the-wall innings prompted memories of when Steve Waugh’s captaincy was losing support. Waugh’s hundred off the last ball of the day back then was just the sort of retort you’d expect from the gritty twin from Sydney’s suburbs.

So too Warner’s.

Then what of the bit part players? The South Africans pulled themselves together after wasting the first half-hour of the day, bowled well through the middle session, but with the exception of Nortje had nothing left in the last.

It was hot, it was hard and the longer the day went on the less hope they had of salvaging anything from this match. They dropped Smith twice and ruffled his feathers early, but he found a way as he does.