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David Warner said he was scared facing Morne Morkel on Thursday, but he certainly didn’t show it.
Warner treated Morkel and the South African bowlers with contempt on the opening day of the second Test in Adelaide to blast away the cobwebs and answer questions about his suitability as a Test opener.
The powerful Warner clobbered 119 from 112 balls with 16 boundaries and four sixes, before Morkel eventually had him caught at slip.
Morkel fired a couple of decent bouncers at Warner, but more often than not he was watching the red ball hit the fences as he finished the best of the Proteas bowlers, but still with 2-128.
Warner and Michael Clarke piled on an electric 155 to take the game away from South Africa before they could even blink.
The Australian captain said on Wednesday that Warner had battled some mental demons since his failure in the first Test at Brisbane.
Encouraged to play his natural game, Warner cleared his head at training during the week and came out on the opening morning and smashed the Proteas all over the ground.
But he swears he wasn’t always comfortable.
“Morne bowled a very fast spell to me and those three bouncers he bowled me in that one over I was a bit scared at one stage,” Warner said.
“For my preparation for this Test, credit goes out to the net bowlers. I faced them and they bowled themselves into the ground.
“I sorted it (poor form) out in the nets and today it came off for me.
“My game is to go out there and try and score. For a session there they bowled too short and I ended up swinging the bat a little bit.”
The left-hander had received great support from senior teammates Ricky Ponting and Clarke earlier in the week.
Ponting said it was only a matter of time until Warner carved out a record similar to Adam Gilchrist before him.
Warner had scored more than 30 just five times in 17 Tests leading into Adelaide.
But right from the get-go on Thursday, Warner stuck to his philosophy of “see the ball, hit the ball”.
At one stage during the first session, he stood at the other end as opening partner Ed Cowan (10), Rob Quiney (0) and Ponting (4) fell within the space of 15 deliveries to make things precarious at 3-55.
But Warner fearlessly continued to follow his instincts.
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