David Warner has completed a near-perfect sign off from Test cricket, hitting a half-century to guide Australia to an eight-wicket win over Pakistan.
In a fitting farewell to his 112-Test career, Warner steered Australia to within 11 runs of their 130-run target before being trapped lbw for 57 by Pakistan spinner Sajid Khan.
The opener left the SCG to a standing ovation before Australia sealed a 3-0 clean sweep of the tourists in the next over.
“It’s pretty much a dream come true,” Warner said on Fox Sports.
“You win a 3-0 and cap off what has been a great 18 months for the team.
“On the back of a World Test Championship win, Ashes draw and the World Cup, to come here and win 3-0 is a great achievement.”
Warner had pulled out all the tricks to celebrate his retirement party, with an array of reverse-sweeps, bludgeoning cover drives and even an attempted reverse-scoop.
The 37-year-old’s runs came off 75 balls and included seven boundaries, setting the tone from the third ball he faced by walking down the wicket to quick Mir Hamza.
He twice reverse-swept Sajid to the boundary in an entertaining but calculated approach to negating the rough outside off-stump.
Warner was granted some luck on 16 when he almost chopped on, while Aamir Jamal dropped a very difficult chance at mid-off on 25. He later survived a close lbw call when on 53.
But as is always the case with Warner, when the ball came out of the middle of the bat it was punishing for the opposition.
Warner’s shot of the day was a crunching four through the covers off the back foot against Hamza, while other boundaries came down the ground off Sajid.
The left-hander’s running between the wickets was a feature of his innings, as it has been throughout his career.
“I started with Twenty20 and I tried to come out here and emulate that,” Warner said.
“I tried to play my shots, go out the way I like to play and managed to get the win on the board which is great.”
Warner’s approach took some of the sting out of the situation for Australia, after Usman Khawaja was trapped lbw for a duck by Sajid in the first over.
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After he and childhood friend Warner embraced before walking out on the field, Khawaja reviewed the lbw but was out on a narrow umpire’s call.
That left Marnus Labuschagne to be the man to finish next to Warner, playing his best innings of the summer to end not out on 62.
The runs flowed after Josh Hazlewood set up the win for Australia on Friday evening, before Pakistan were bowled out for 115 on the fourth morning.
After the tourists took a 15-run first-innings lead, Hazlewood (4-16) claimed a triple-wicket maiden late on day three to crush Pakistan’s hopes.
Pakistan were able to offer a brief resistance on Saturday morning, with Mohammad Rizwan (28) and Aamir (18) putting on 42 for the eighth wicket.
But when Nathan Lyon had Rizwan caught at leg slip, Pakistan folded quickly.
Player-of-the-series Pat Cummins added the scalp of Aamir to his first-innings five-wicket haul to make it 19 scalps across three Tests, before Lyon (3-36) bowled Hasan to have Pakistan all out.
The win cements Australia’s newly crowned status as the world’s No.1-ranked Test team, with two Tests against West Indies still to come later in January.
