Australia’s decision to put winning a match ahead of a David Warner potential world-record score has paid dividends with Pakistan all but out of the pink-ball Test.
After David Warner hit an Adelaide Oval record 335 not out on Saturday in Australia’s 3(dec)-589, Mitchell Starc took four wickets to have the tourists 6-96 at stumps on day two.
Warner went past Don Bradman and Mark Taylor’s top scores of 334 to sit second behind Matthew Hayden’s 380 as the second highest-ever score by an Australian.
Brian Lara’s world record of 400 was also in sight, with the West Indies champion at the ground.
But captain Tim Paine made the tough call to prioritise the maximum chance of a result and bowling at twilight as more important, with wet weather forecast for later in the match.
Australia’s bowlers then responded in kind, showing all the discipline Pakistan lacked to nick off Pakistan’s top and middle order with the tourists requiring 293 runs to avoid a possible follow on.
Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins both had one scalp to go with Starc’s 4-22. The left-armer’s spell was highlighted by a ripping catch from Paine, who dived one-handed to catch a cutting Iftikhar Ahmed on zero in front of first slip.
It had been a virtuoso showing from Warner across Friday and Saturday as he formed part of a 361-run stand with fellow centurion Marnus Labuschagne who was bowled going hard at a ball on 162.
The opener crunched the ball through the covers whenever it was full and wide, and cut anything short outside off stump through point.
In perhaps the greatest sign of how often Pakistan failed to bowl full and straight, only 21 of the left-hander’s runs came past mid-off and mid-on.
Legspinner Yasir Shah copped the heaviest attention with figures of 0-197, while Muhammad Musa (0-114) and Mohammad Abbas (0-100) also reached three figures. Teenager Shaheen Shah Afridi was the only bowler to have any joy, taking 3-88. But their poor bowling shouldn’t take away from Warner’s brilliance.
He finished with the 10th-highest score in the 142-year history of Test cricket and the highest ever in Adelaide, hitting 39 boundaries and one six, with 80 of his runs coming from cover drives as he ran hard throughout.
He passed his previous best mark of 253 just before tea and looked to the sky as he reached both 200 and 300 on what would have been Phillip Hughes’ 31st birthday, only showing signs of fatigue closer to the tea break, notably when he was caught at gully on 226 from a Musa no-ball.
His tally for the international summer is now a ridiculous 776 runs at 388 after flying through the Twenty20 series and scoring a century in the first Test at the Gabba.
Warner also earned support from previous skipper Mark Taylor for passing Bradman’s mark, with the former Test skipper admitting he had had every intention of trying to beat what was then a record before Matthew Hayden surpassed them both, but was prevented by bad luck in doing so.
“Records are meant to be broken,” Taylor said in Macquarie Radio commentary. “I got to 334 with two balls to go on the second night of that game. And I tried to hit them as David did.”
“I tried to hit them for runs and they both were fielded. One was really well fielded by Ijaz Ahmed, who stopped me from going past Bradman’s score.”
It ended a bad day for Bradman’s records. Steve Smith went past him into 11th in the most runs for Australia, going beyond the 6996 runs he hit in his career, although the former captain played 51 more innings to do so.
Warner’s score also surpassed Bradman’s record for the highest Test score at the Adelaide Oval, which had stood at 299 not out since 1932.
It comes in Warner’s first matches back at home for Australia since the ball-tampering scandal and subsequent 12-month ban.
Along with Labuschagne and Steve Smith (36), he helped the Aussies pile on 173 from 35 overs in the first session on Saturday.
He and Matthew Wade (38no) then put on another 114 in in 19 overs after the break, at a run a ball.
His stand with Labuschagne was a record for both the second wicket in Australia and any Australian partnership against Pakistan.