Underfire Australia opener David Warner on Tuesday ended a nearly -year-long drought for a century, by scoring an unbeaten hundred on the second day of the second Test against South Africa and joined an elite set of batters to score a century in their 100th Test match.
He is now the 10th batter to score a hundred in his 100th Test match. Warner, who last scored a hundred in January 2020, was under tremendous pressure as he entered the Boxing Day Test against South Africa at the Melbourne Cricket Ground with a mediocre average of 20.61 in his last 10 innings.
He was also unhappy with Cricket Australia over their stand on the lifetime ban on his captaincy following the Sandpapergate scandal, refusing to participate in a public hearing to be conducted by the federation on his application to lift the ban.
With runs drying up for him and the off-field matters getting lot of attention, questions were being raised over his presence in the team. However, the 36-year-old former Australia vice-captain silenced his critics by scoring a hundred on Tuesday, helping the hosts recover from the early loss of his opening partner Usman Khawaja (1).
Warner reached the three-figure mark off 144 balls, hitting eight fours en route to the century after lunch on the second day. He also combined with his former captain Steve Smith in a century stand for the third wicket that rescued Australia from a difficult 75/2 in the morning session as the hosts built their innings after bowling out South Africa for 189 on the first day.
At the time of writing this story, Warner was batting on 124 off 189 deliveries while Smith was keeping him company unbeaten on 45 as Australia crossed the 200-run mark. With this century, Warner became the 10th batsman in the world to score a century in his 100th Test match.
England's Colin Cowdrey was the first to do so by scoring 104 for England against Australia at Edgebaston in the 1968 Ashes. The others in the list are Pakistan's Javed Miandad, West Indies opener Grodon Greenidge, England's Alec Stewart, Pakistan's Inzamam-ul-Haq, Australia's Ricky Ponting, Graeme Smith of South Africa, Hashim Amla (South Africa) and Joe Root of England.
Among these elite batters, Ponting is the only one to score a century in both innings of his 100th Test. Warner will have a chance of emulating Ponting if South Africa post a big total in their second innings, making Australia chase enough runs in the fourth innings.