World Cup: David Warner hits the bludgeoning zone with 163 in twilight of his career and celebrates his match-winning century Pushpa-style | Cricket-world-cup News

THE sun over the Bengaluru horizon had quietly slipped into twilight when David Warmer completed his hundred. He celebrated with the trademark leap, like being propelled a spring, and the violent punch of the air – his riff off the Allu Arjun Pushpa style. In a week, he turns 37. Next year, he plans to retire from all formats. In the last few years, he has seemed his age. But at the Chinnaswamy, with his career in its twilight zone, he turned the clock back, batting as though he had rediscovered his youth, taking his team to a second win on the bounce after two defeats to start their World Cup campaign.His 163 off 124 balls and 259-run opening stand with Mitchell Marsh (121 in 108 balls) propelled Australia to 367/9. Pakan were boosted a 134-run first-wicket partnership of their own between Abdullah Shafique (64) and Imam-ul-Haq (70), but the target was too steep for them as they folded for 305, going down 62 runs for their second successive defeat.
It was, in a sense, Warner’s tribute to Warner. After the customary Ashes travails, he had revived himself in 50-over cricket, his favourite format, one wherein he should be counted among the all-time greats of his country. But in none of his outings, even during his hundreds against England and South Africa this year, he had looked so brutally youthful, or exuded the sense of daring as he showed in this game. Everything could have been different had Usama Mir, who took a pair of splendid catches later on, not shelled a simple one at mid-on when he was on 10. He was grassed on 113 too, which cost Pakan 50 more runs. But Warner took optimum advantage of the lapses.

There is no better example of this than the six in Haris Rauf’s first over. After being pummelled through point the previous ball, short and wide, Rauf went fuller on middle and leg. Warner simply moved inside the line, got under the ball and scooped it behind square-leg, with a ferocious whirl of his wrs. The power he imparted on the ball seemed to destabilise him — he seemed to lose his shape and fall over, and for him the stable base is fundamental — but he was statue-still when the wood made its chunky contact with the leather. Warner has the gift of freezing his movements while batting. He looks a mess when executing the shot, seemingly short of time, his balance off-kilter, the upper body plunging, but somehow he always pulls off those strokes.
But as much as the execution, it was his sense of adventure that has stood out. In recent years, his explosive power waning, he had resorted to percentage shots, his ability to manipulate gaps, and the running between the wickets. It’s even more so the case when he starts an innings, a trifle watchful, a bit conscious of his own decline. leaving the attacking duties to Travis Head before he got injured and then Marsh, whose glorious hundred was shaded out Warner’s sky-riser.
Sedate start
Their start was sedate the frantic standards of the times. The first eight overs yielded 43 runs. Then steamed in Haris Rauf, all boundless energy, and ended up bleeding 24 runs in the over. Marsh crunched three successive fours to wrap up the over, but the Warner scoop-six set the pace, shaped the destiny of Pakan’s bowlers and charted the path the game was to take. In the next nine overs, Australia would ransack 100 runs.
During the phase, Warner just intimidated, looking broader and taller than he is. A figure of coiled muscle. He exhibited the ruthlessness of his slipping youth. Anything marginally short was clobbered, those Popeye-forearm muscles flexing furiously; anything full was thundered down. The raw power was back. Yet, the most tell-tale sign of Warner in full flow is when he drives through the covers. It’s an under-appreciated shot of his — perhaps because he does not lean into it in the classical fashion, or does not have a flamboyant follow through, or it is just an impression that he is all graceless power — but when he drives, it is a clear sign that he is in siner touch.Most Read
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The drives came much later, when he was past his hundred. But they carried an understated beauty. For all other strokes, the effort tells on his face and body, but when driving in full flow, he does so with natural simplicity. In his 20s, he did have a full-throttle drive, but after Stuart Broad worked him over, he shelved his drives, unless the ball was very full. Later on Friday, as he raced to 150 — the only batsman to have three 150-plus scores in the hory of the tournament — he unzipped a gorgeous four off Shaheen Afridi, stretching and creaming his off-cutter through the covers.

Soon he would complete his 150, with a huge six off Usama Mir —off merely 117 balls. This is the fastest (strike rate of 131) he has batted for a three-figure score in six years, after his highest of 179 in Adelaide. This was his fifth hundred in the World Cup and only Rohit Sharma and Sachin Tendulkar have more. The conditions could not have been better — the surface was flat, the bowlers were wayward, the dimensions of the ground were small, and the fielders were generous — but to still dictate the tempo at a time when his forces are supposedly diminishing takes a lot of self-conviction.
The innings also showed how central he still is for his country and how central he is to their fortunes this campaign. He was Australia’s second-highest run-getter the last time they won a World Cup; he was the tournament’s second highest run-getter in 2019, a run behind Virat Kohli; he is his country’s second highest run-getter in World Cups (1,220 at 61). His value magnifies even more in the context of Steve Smith’s patchy form and the flimsiness of their middle order, which the Pakan bowlers exposed after Warner’s departure. After his exit in the 43rd over, Australia managed only 42 runs in the next seven overs.
Thus, in the twilight of his career, Warner is shining brightly. even finding a fresh burst of youth.