Warner finally fires in an ODI

David Warner's ODI career was an anomaly. He had scored two superlative Test centuries despite limited first-class experience (only 17 games, including six Tests), he had set the Twenty20 world alight, but the one-day international game remained unconquered. He had played 18 games before the first CB series final for just 405 runs.

He chose the right time to come good. His 163 was his maiden ODI hundred and the sixth-highest score by an Australia player in an ODI, and he batted through until the last ball of the innings to help Australia make 321, the second-best one-day international total ever achieved at the Gabba.

Warner started off slightly scratchily, and was helped by the fact that his opening partner Matthew Wade got off to a brisk start. Once Warner got in, though, he sizzled. The middle overs and spread fields did not seem to matter. The bowlers were not safe, nor were the umpires, and the crowd too had to be alert. The two shots that often stand out for Warner are his pulls and cuts in front of square, which become important when the pitch is slow, as it was tonight. Warner kept hitting those shots once he had reached the middle part of the innings.