Warner adds another fifty in rain-affected draw

New South Wales 353 and 0 for 94 (Warner 51*) drew with Victoria 236 and 4 for 356 (Rogers 117, Handscomb 94, White 70*, Quiney 56)
Scorecard

David Warner is confident he has put his disappointing Ashes tour behind him, and his scores for New South Wales over the past few weeks suggest he is on the right track ahead of the rematch. Warner finished the Sheffield Shield match against Victoria at the MCG with an unbeaten 51 in New South Wales' second innings to add to his 104 from the first innings as the rain-affected game petered out to a draw.

From his altercation with Joe Root in a pub during the Champions Trophy and his subsequent suspension to his below-par batting during the Ashes, Warner was one of the major underperformers on Australia's tour. But his work with his batting coach Trent Woodhill since returning home has helped Warner to three Ryobi Cup tons and a Shield hundred over the past few weeks, and given a little more time he might well have driven the Blues to victory over Victoria.

"I was going through a pretty bad rough patch. England didn't help with all the stuff that went on over there," Warner said. "That's in the past. I've got myself back into shape and I'm playing cricket the way I want to play. For me [it was important] to go back to the drawing board and see how I made all those runs before I made my debut.

"I looked at a few videos. Me and my batting coach Trent Woodhill came up with a solution and at the moment it's working. It's good to be on the phone with him and the advantage of me being at home is to be able to work with him. He has put a lot of time and effort in with me and I thank him for his patience because I'm probably not the easiest to work with. He has done a lot for me and I can't thank him enough."

Warner raced to 51 from 45 balls, including five fours and a six, alongside Nic Maddinson (36 not out) as New South Wales reached 0 for 94 in their unlikely chase of 240 before both sides agreed to call the match off. Importantly for the national team, Warner was not the only Test player to find form during this game - Steven Smith scored a hundred on the second day and Warner's opening partner Chris Rogers completed his 63rd first-class century on the final morning.

"It's good to get out there and score runs and it's good to see Chris Rogers scoring runs as well," Warner said. "We know the type of player he is and we always talk about it. He's a person who has a lot of character, someone who just grinds it out and scores big runs. We can't get him out as well."

Rogers began the day on 96 and brought up triple figures before a rain delay interrupted proceedings, and he finished with 117 when he was caught off the bowling of Nathan Lyon. Although neither Lyon nor Fawad Ahmed was outstanding during the course of the match, Lyon at least kept things tight and picked up three wickets for the game, while Ahmed managed 1 for 114 over both innings in a match that was attended by national selector John Inverarity.

Peter Handscomb missed out on the chance for a century when he was lbw to Steve O'Keefe for 94 and Cameron White continued his strong start to the season with an unbeaten 70 before the Victorians declared on 4 for 356. Doug Bollinger struggled with an abdominal problem on the final day but the New South Wales coach Trevor Bayliss said keeping Bollinger off the field for most of the day was "precautionary".