Australia’s World Cup hopes received a further boost last night with star batsman David Warner making a dominant return to top-level cricket with 85 from 53 balls in the Indian Premier League.
From the very start of his knock for Sunrisers Hyderabad, Warner looked as if he had never been gone. In the second over of the innings he played two extraordinary strokes which are only possible for truly elite batsmen.
Former Indian leg spinner Piyush Chawla delivered two well-directed, flat googlies which were headed for the top of Warner’s off stump.
The left-handed Aussie gave himself just enough room to slice both deliveries past cover for four. The veteran spinner, who has played 218 matches in this format, looked utterly stunned.
Chawla’s apparently muddled mind, as a result of these two phenomenal strokes, was evident when the next ball he called for an awful DRS review of an LBW shout against Warner that pitched 20cm outside leg stump.
Soon after that Kolkata quick Prasidh Krishna dropped slightly short and Warner rocked back to hammer a pull shot over mid-wicket for four.
Any concerns Warner might struggle to re-adapt to high-level cricket, perhaps struggling against extreme pace or world class spin, were promptly scotched in the following overs.
First he looked at complete ease against arguably the world’s fastest bowler, Lachie Ferguson, driving the Kiwi quick for four in his first over.
Then he clubbed three boundaries in the space of four balls from two of the star spinners of world cricket, Kuldeep Yadav and Sunil Narine.
By this point it was clear Warner had lost nothing during his 12 months out of international cricket due to the ball-tampering scandal.
A few minutes later he was confronted by another bowler with intimidating pace in West Indian Andrew Russell. First he absolutely nailed a cover drive for four. Then he upper-cut Russell’s next delivery over third man for six to bring up his half-century from just 31 balls.
Perhaps no shot in Warner’s innings, though, was more impressive than what he unleashed from the final ball of Kuldeep’s second over.
The left arm wrist spinner landed a leg break on a good length and Warner, somehow, went deep in his crease, got underneath it and bludgeoned it for six over long on.
By the time Warner reached 85, with four overs left in the innings, he looked bolted on for what would have been the seventh ton of his T20 career. It took a sharp catch by Robin Uthappa at cover to deny Warner this milestone.
That ended a truly stunning comeback knock from the 32-year-old, who was comfortably Australia’s best white ball batsman before being banned.
It was arguable that ODIs had become his best format and that he was the second best ODI batsman in the world after Indian Virat Kohli at that point.
(AAP Image/David Mariuz)
In Warner’s last 50 ODIs he averaged 56, racked up 11 tons, and scored at the scorching strike rate of 106.
He has been widely expected to slot straight back into Australia’s World Cup XI, despite heavy competition due to the good form of Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh and Peter Handscomb, and the impending return of Steve Smith.
Warner’s performance last night, while admittedly just one knock, suggests he could still be Australia’s potential trump card with the blade in the World Cup in England this June.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
JN, yes, I agree they were a little over the top (in retrospect) but I think it might give you some idea of just how angry we were with them at the time. Bloody furious in fact. CA and most fans wanted to make a point and make it strongly. I think we may have achieved that. .. I hope you can appreciate that I wasn't seriously suggesting that this should be the default penalty btw. It's just that if you follow this thread to the top of its tree we have Jerry suggesting that Warner should never be allowed to play again and it just reminded me of what I saw on the BBC. .. Cheers.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
dungerBob possibly the English should concern themselves more with the far lighter suspension dished out to Ben Stokes. I stand by my opinion that the sentences, because that’s what they are, handed out to the 3 was over the top and nothing has happened these past 12 months for me to change my mind. I am incidentally South African and would love for us to have another go at Australia….. with these 3 in the team.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
Ok then, if you really insist I will explain my comment a little more. I was talking about the reaction, primarily in Britain, as exposed on a BBC Have Your say piece. A surprisingly large number of posters said that they didn't think the penalty was big enough. More than just a few thought that the 3 should be banned for life while others thought the entire team should have been banned for a year. I basically got sick of that over reaction, hence my challenge to them to follow suite in what you admit is a fairly common offence.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Your presumption. The ICC is not an autonomous organization. It is The sum total of its members. Of those members India, England and yes indeed Australia have constitutionally the most weighted influence. They have been tasked to deal with on field transgressions by these members to do so. If Cricket Australia is unhappy with ICC penalties it has had the power and influence to change it. The moment the Australian Prime Minister stuck his nose in publically the fate of all 3 were sealed, hence my opinion that the punishments were political. Can anyone seriously think a 1 year ban from their jobs and no ability to earn an income coupled with public humiliation, coupled with a further 1 year suspension for Smith from captaincy and finally a lifetime ban for Warner from captaincy was appropriate for a very common offense by all teams. It was knee jerk and an overreaction by Cricket Australia.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
So presumably you would have had no objection to Warner receiving no punishment whatsoever and Smith/Bancroft 2 matches each. Good on you. A rare bird indeed.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Nothing like a decent break Ronan.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
DungerBob, we ( other cricket countries) are not going to follow suit, some precedents should be rejected. It was not a reaction or a correction or even an appropriate punishment. It was a political statement. Please keep it in Australia. The rest of us would have done the appropriate thing and left it to the ICC of which Australia amongst all has tasked with policing the game.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I miss Ian Healy and Chappelli. And, of course, Richie
Gee
Roar Rookie
Those runs were valuable, he took the pressure off a tiring Finch and Marsh who came in next had the chance to take his time getting in. Not a great innings on paper but a good one for the team.
Chris Love
Roar Guru
Because Warner can do that and go on with it. Players like that, that can open and score at such a quick rate throughout a long innings you want opening.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
The thing with Finch is that his ODI career has always gone purple patch then slump then purple patch then slump. He's always been either poor or fantastic, never just a consistently decent batsman like some others. Finch has had a few extended troughs in ODIs where he's really struggled and then he follows with a dominant run where he averages 50+ over a period of 15+ matches. Australia will hope that pattern continues and this marks the start of a hot run for Finch.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
Maxi did his job with the bat though. He kept the run rate moving, monstered a couple of sixes, and was a touch unlucky to get run out.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
I think Stoinis got a ship load of credits in the old selection bank account with that absolutely stunning innings in NZ a while back. Anyone who saw that couldn't help but be super impressed with the way he man handled a very good Kiwi attack. I'd say the time is fast approaching where he needs to do something similar to keep the wolves at bay.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
Warner was always in a position where he just had to show a glimmer of form to come back into the side imo. With Finch, it's great to see him come back to life but I think we have to take into account that the pitches in Sharjah are pretty dead. I hope he can carry this form through the rest of the Pakistan series and more importantly onto England. Let's see how Smith goes and what sort of headache he can give the selectors .. This log jam is a good problem to have though.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
Batting Finch down the list sounds a pretty good idea, though somewhere in the back of my mind I've got a vague memory that we've done that before and it didn't work. Maybe it was Warner we tried it with. It was one of them I'm almost sure.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
Chris, I said something similar on the BBC cricket site and got crucified of course. So then I said CA has set the precedent so lets see who follows suite and they all shut up. Well, for a while at least.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
He’s done the punishment. What more do you want? I am less than pleased he has not done the ‘mea culpa’. But that’s my issue. He’s done the allotted penalty with what the CA deemed effective. —- From a cricket perspective it really is a good showing.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
It's the best way to answer his critics of which there are quite a few. No correction its the only way.
Paul
Roar Guru
I'm wondering how much faith Finch has in Stoinis bowling as well, Ronan? He's only bowled 28.2 overs out of a possible 60 for a return of 2 wickets at more than 6 an over. His batting has been okay given his opportunities but again, he's only scored faster than a run a ball once in these tours, which is below par for a number 7, when the side is winning. Interested in your thoughts about who our death bowlers, especially if Richardson doesn't play? Pakistan killed our guys in the last 10 overs in the first ODI and did nearly the same in the second. I think the Aussie camp had hopes Stoinis might do a job at the death but his figures have been very underwhelming.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Paul As you said in earlier response, leadup and early games in England should decide final shape of team. It may come down to how they look in English conditions. While it’s starting to look as though Khawaja, Smith and Handscomb may edge out Marsh, especially if Smith looks good in the IPL, Marsh does have an excellent recent record in ODIs and List A County matches.