Hosts on 346-5 on day one of first Test
Warner's 164 puts Australia in control against Pakistan
Warner surpasses Clarke in Australia's all-time Test run-scorers list
Friday, 15 December 2023
PERTH, Australia, Dec 14 (Agencies): Veteran opener David Warner hammered a gritty 164 to silence the critics and steer Australia to 346-5 against an inconsistent Pakistan attack in the first Test at Perth on Thursday.
The 37-year-old batted for much of day one before finally departing to Aamer Jamal, two balls after smashing the debutant for six.
At stumps, Mitchell Marsh was unbeaten on 15 and Alex Carey not out 14.
Meanwhile, Warner has surpassed former skipper Michael Clarke to become Australia's fifth-highest all-time run-scorer in Test cricket. Warner has now amassed 8651 runs in 110 Test matches for Australia, averaging 45.05 while hitting 26 hundreds and 36 half-centuries. He is only behind Ricky Ponting (13,378 runs), Allan Border (11,174 runs), Steve Waugh (10,927 runs), Steve Smith (9351 runs) in the list of top-scoring Test batters for Australia.
Interestingly, Warner is the third-highest run-scorer for Australia across all formats of the game, and is just 20 runs short of Steve Waugh's tally. Warner could overtake the legendary Australia skipper's tally of 18,496 international runs in this match itself.
In fact, Warner is just one century short of becoming just the second Australian after Ponting to hit 50 international hundreds, and the ninth overall. If he gets to that landmark, he would join Sachin Tendulkar (100), Virat Kohli (80), Ponting (71), Kumar Sangakkara (63), Jacques Kallis (62), Hashim Amla (55), Mahela Jayawardene (54) and Brian Lara (53) in this elite list.
He is all set to retire from Test cricket at the end of the series at his home ground in Sydney. The final match of the series will start on January 3 next year.
Pakistan have never won a Test series in Australia and have failed to win a Test in the country since 1995, with Shan Masood's side again facing a daunting task.
Their bowlers showed flashes of brilliance and were rewarded with the wickets of Usman Khawaja (41), Marnus Labuschagne (16), Steve Smith (31) and Travis Head (40).