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Australia's star opener David Warner kicked off his Test swansong in style with a belligerent century, putting the hosts in a commanding position at 346/5 at the stumps on the first day of the opening Test against Pakistan in Perth on Thursday.
Warner hushed all doubters about his form in Test cricket on the opening day of the first Test against Pakistan, slamming a typically explosive 164 off 211 balls in a spectacular start to his farewell series. The 37-year-old justified captain Pat Cummins' decision to bat first on the Perth surface. He stormed to a fifty off 41 balls, stitching together a century stand with Usman Khawaja at a breakneck pace. While his teammates failed to capitalise on the excellent start, former skipper Steve Smith was the day's second-highest scorer with 41 runs. Warner went on to bring up his 26th Test century, which was followed by his customary leap and celebration. After bringing up his century, the 37-year-old Warner was given two lifelines: first, Khurram Shahzad missed a catching opportunity, and then Sarfaraz Ahmed messed up a stumping chance. Warner destroyed Pakistan by accumulating runs and scoring 150. The visitors finally got the best of Warner by employing the short-ball strategy, which saw the Australia opener hole out in the deep a few overs before the day's play ended. Mitchell Marsh and Alex Carey then guided Australia to a dominant position with 346 runs on the board and five wickets down in the remaining overs. Earlier at the end of the second session, Australia posted a total of 210/3 on the board, with Warner and vice-captain Steve Smith unbeaten with scores of 111(149) and 21(34). Meanwhile, in the first session, the hosts didn't put a single foot wrong in the first 25 overs of the day. It was a Warner show right from the off-set as he led the charge with the bat and bashed Pakistan's revamped pace set-up to race through the first session. Brief Score: Australia 346/5 (David Warner 164, Usman Khawaja 41; Aamer Jamal 2-63) vs Pakistan. (ANI)
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