Phillip Hughes would be chuckling with embarrassment at all these tears and tributes, his great mate David Warner reckons.
Warner and Australian cricket continued with and without Hughes on Tuesday, a fortnight after he was struck by a fatal bouncer.
“I just had a gut feeling that my little mate was down the other end with me the whole time from ball one,” Warner said after belting a century against India in the first Test in Adelaide.
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“He was at the other end laughing at me about all the support and all the people that sent their messages.
“I don’t think he would have himself believed the amount of support that he has had from not just around Australia but around the world.
“He would probably be quite embarrassed actually.”
Warner dedicated his cracking 145 in memoriam to Hughes, whose life and death hung in Australian air on Tuesday.
In Sydney, Hughes’ unwitting bowling assailant, Sean Abbott, was sending down bouncers – one on his fifth ball of a Sheffield Shield match against Queensland – and taking two wickets.
In Tasmania and Perth, Shield cricketers observed a minute’s silence.
In Adelaide, players and spectators stood in unison before play and clapped for 63 seconds – the number denoting Hughes’ final score.
“Before the game started, my emotions took over and it was quite challenging, I found it quite hard,” Warner said.
But not as hard as when his score ticked over to 63.
“Even though a spinner was bowling, being on that number wasn’t right, I just wanted to get past that and move on,” Warner said.
“In this generation, it (63) is going to be with us the rest of our lives and the rest of our careers.”
But Warner, constantly by Hughes’ side after he was struck, reckoned the toughest time was yet to come.
“The hardest thing is going to be the New Year’s Test,” Warner said.
“Walking out on to the SCG where it all unfolded – that is going to be the toughest task for me and probably the other guys that were there as well.”
But Warner took solace from seeing Hughes’ smiling face everywhere at Adelaide Oval.
Hughes grinned in a tribute on the big video screen; on a souvenir edition of the local paper; at his makeshift memorial outside the southern entrance to the ground.
And surely he would have smiled at how his beloved game got on with it.
“It’s one of those things where you have to keep soldiering on and do your best. We know he’s always going to be with us,” Warner said.
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