David Warner guides the Australian team to triumph in final Test to achieve a clean sweep of 3-0 over Pakistan
David Warner made 57 runs to help Australia beat Pakistan by eight wickets in his farewell test match on Saturday, capping off a 112-match winning streak at home.
Warner was out LBW off the bowling of Sajid Khan with Australia needing only 11 runs to win the three-match series for the third time in a row. He waved to the audience as he went out of the Sydney Cricket Ground. The only other wicket to fall in Australia’s second innings was opener Usman Khawaja, who was caught behind off Khan’s bowling for a six-ball duck.
As a token of congratulations, Pakistan captain Shan Masood gave Warner with one of Babar Azam’s jerseys autographed by the touring squad. Australia skipper Pat Cummins, who was named series player of the series after taking 19 wickets, including three straight five-wicket hauls, said it will be difficult to replace Warner.
Pakistan scored 313 and 115, while Australia scored 299 and 130-2. When the match finished, Marnus Labuschagne had scored 62 and was at the crease with Smith (4).
Warner’s half-century came off 75 balls and contained seven boundaries, and he set the tone right away by striding down the wicket at the bowler on the third delivery. He reverse-swept twice to the boundary.
Warner was given a reprieve on 16 (when he almost chopped on to his stumps) and 25 (when Aamir Jamal lost a tough chance at mid off). On 53, he also survived a tight lbw appeal.
On Saturday, everything went according to plan for Australia. To begin Day 4, the bowlers easily grabbed Pakistan’s three remaining wickets and set a 130-run winning goal.
The third Test between Australia and Pakistan marked the end of David Warner’s brilliant 112-Test career, as the experienced batsman said farewell to international Test cricket. Josh Hazlewood finished with 4-16 numbers, while Nathan Lyon contributed heavily with 3-36. Australia won the first test in Perth by 360 runs and the second in Melbourne by 79 runs.
David Warner: “Massive part of your life and without their support you can’t do what you do. I owe credit to my parents for giving me a beautiful and great upbringing. My brother Steve, I followed in his footsteps. And then Candice came along and sort of got me in line. We’ve had a beautiful family and I cherish every moment I get with them. I love them to death and I’m not going to keep carrying on because I’ll get too emotional. But thank you, Candace, for what you’ve done. You mean the world to me, and I appreciate it. I think it’d be quite emotional to watch the guys go out there and not play and knowing that I was able to come out here and do what I could do. But as I just mentioned you got a great bunch of cricketers here. We are all almost over 30 years of age. So as time goes by, we’re not getting younger, but this team, they’re energetic, they’re world class and they’re a great bunch of guys. Exciting, entertaining, and I hope I put a smile on everyone’s face with the way that I played and hopefully the young kids out there can follow in my footsteps. White ball cricket to Test cricket. It’s the pinnacle of our sport. So keep working hard to play the red ball game because it’s entertaining as well.”
Pat Cummins, Player of the Series : “Having them four down really set the game up. I thought batters adjusted really well and it was like subcontinent conditions, they swept well, you can’t just survive there, you got to put pressure on bowlers. Oh, it was great, brilliant Test cricket late in the day, entire stadium erupted. Huge cheers for Mitch Marsh, he is thriving, he is a guy who puts a lot of pressure on the oppositions it’s gonna be hard to replace Davey, he is a huge personality, he really sets the game up, he’s gonna be huge to replace.”
Aamer Jamal, Player of the match: “Yes, I waited long to get here. Congratulations to Australia and thank you everyone who came in to watch this game. Feelings are incredible and over the moon and performing against great Australian side wasn’t easy but I stick to my basics so I succeeded. Loved every moment, I knew they will come hard on us so I wasn’t giving up and focusing on every ball. I think we have got very talented Mir Hamza, Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali.”
Shan Masood: “Taking a lead, missing a few chances, it’s a bit of Déjà vu since Melbourne, Australia went searching for wickets, we left the gate open and they made full use of it. realistically, we would have liked anything over 200, that doesn’t make batter take that many risks early on so I think we were quite a few runs short and Australia bowled really well again. We are learning it the hard way. I think that’s the thing we have to do as a Test team going forward, Rizwan top scored but nobody got over 200 runs this series, If we can make those little improvements, grab those chances, make fifties into hundred, so the little improvements could help us. We got 10 months to play the next Test match so plenty of time to get back and re-apply. What a lovely gesture from Pakistan team.”
AUS vs PAK 3rd Test – Brief Score: Pakistan 1st innings: 313, 2nd innings: 115 | Australia 1st innings: 299, 2nd innings: 130/2
