On this day in 2017 – David Warner joins an elite club with blazing ton

Pakistan’s full-length tour of Australia in the 2016-17 season began with a 3-match Test series. Pakistan were 0-2 down ahead of the final Test match at the Sydney cricket ground despite some spirited batting performances.

Australia elected to bat first on winning the toss at the SCG and gave the license to the in-form David Warner for going hard against the new ball. Warner was fresh from a 143-ball 144 in the Melbourne Test and started the Sydney Test in a similar fashion. The southpaw smashed a boundary off Mohammad Amir on the 2nd ball he faced and had hit as many as five fours inside the first three overs.

100 before Lunch on Day 1 of a Test! Congratulations David Warner on becoming only the 5th batsman to do it, the first since 1976! #AusvPak pic.twitter.com/FUkQoJIvA4

— ICC (@ICC) January 3, 2017

Warner kept finding the fence regularly leaving Pakistan to bring in leg-spinner Yasir Shah by 11th over itself. The opening batsman brought up his fifty by 13th over in only 42 balls. A spinner bowling in the first session allowed Pakistan to bowl 27 overs which was enough for Warner to bring up his hundred. David Warner brought up his hundred in the final over before Lunch taking only 78 balls. He smashed as many as 17 fours during his ton and eventually fell shortly after Lunch scoring 113 off 95 balls.

With his century, became only the 5th player in Test history to smash a hundred before lunch on the first day’s play. Only Shikhar Dhawan (vs Afghanistan in 2018 Bangalore Test) has emulated this feat since Warner’s effort, thus adding his name to the list. Other batsmen to do so are Victor Trumper, Charles McCartney, Don Bradman and Majid Khan.

Renshaw and Peter Handscomb smashed 184 and 110 runs respectively to help Australia post 538/8. Pakistan failed to avoid follow-on scoring only 315/10. In the second innings, Warner brought up his fifty in only 23 balls which turned out to be the 2nd fastest fifty in the history of Test cricket behind Misbah-ul-Haq’s 21-ball effort in 2014. Australia went on to declare the innings at 241/2 and set a target of 465 in front of the visitors. Pakistan got bowled out shortly after Tea on the final day for 244 and lost the game by a huge 220-run margin.