David Warner made his homecoming special with a stunning century to blow away the Dutch bowling attack at Arun Jaitley Stadium. Warner, who captained Delhi Capitals in IPL 2023, stamped his authority and coloured Kotla yellow with his brilliant knock. He made sure the fans’ love for him in Delhi only kept growing by sending sixes in the stands to enthral the crowd. Despite not being an India match, a sizeable amount of fans came to witness the mighty Australia batting line-up dominating the Netherlands bowlers.
Warner has already given several moments of joy to the Delhi fans and this time he made sure they also get a moment to cherish from him in the Yellow outfit as it was highly likely his last knock at Arun Jaitley Stadium in an Australian jersey. With every boundary from his willow, the young kids chanted his name like he was their own. The atmosphere inside the stadium was electrifying when he was in the 90s.
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The southpaw put the Netherlands under pressure right from the word go as he smashed Aryan Dutt for 4 boundaries in a row in the second over. He displayed a masterclass of playing cut shots against a right-arm off-spinner.
His aggressive intent forced the Netherlands to change their plans after bowling the first three overs with the spinners, as skipper Scott Edwards brought pacers into the game. It worked for them as Logan van Beek got the better of Mitchell Marsh.
After his openers’ departure, Warner went into a shell for a short span of time and struggled a bit to find the gaps, but got his rhythm after the powerplay got over as he reached his half-century with a maximum in 17.1 overs.
Warner joined hands with Steve Smith to put the Aussie innings back on track as the senior pros held the fort at Kotla and put the Netherlands on the backfoot completely with their century stand.
The southpaw also shared a crucial 86-run stand with Marnus Labuschagne, who made things difficult for the team management with a 47-ball 62. His knock will put pressure on team management while deciding the name of a player when Travis Head returns to the XI.
Meanwhile, the luck was also in Warner’s favour as Roelof van der Merwe dropped his catch on 73. It was a tricky catch and the Netherlands players thought he grabbed it clean and started celebrating, however, Warner didn’t move and was sure that the ball touched the ground when van der Merwe fell. It was referred to third umpire and the decision went Warner’s way.
The duration of 95 to 100 was a bit longer for Warner as he didn’t take any risk and took some time to get to his 22nd ODI century and second in a row in this edition. He took 91 balls to reach the mark and equalled the tally of legendary Sachin Tendulkar of most centuries in World Cup – 6. He is now just one short of equaling Rohit Sharma who is at the top of the list with 7.
Meanwhile, it was Van Beek again who got the big wicket of Warner for 104. The southpaw was caught by Aryan Dutt on the square-leg boundary. Warner returned to the pavilion with his bat in the air as the fans stood up to acknowledge his brilliant knock.
Steve Smith Gets His Mojo Back
Steve Smith got his mojo back and scored a fine half-century after a string of low scores – 46,9, 0 and 7 before Wednesday’s clash. The prolific batter didn’t look fluent with the bat in the first four matches of the World Cup but on Wednesday he looked in good rhythm and hit 71 runs off 68 balls. The early departure of Mitchell Marsh put Smith in the middle during the powerplay. He rebuilt the innings alongside Warner with a 132-run stand for the second wicket.
At one stage, Smith made Warner look like a second fiddle to him as he breached the gaps with ease to add worries for the Dutch who looked out of plans against the Aussies. In the 10th over of innings, he smashed Logan van Beek for a hat-trick of boundaries – the first two on the fine leg, while the third came in the same direction at the square leg region.
The talismanic batter reached his half-century in 19.2 overs. However, he failed to convert it into a triple-digit score and was dismissed by Aryan Dutt on 71 courtesy of a one-handed stunner from Roelof van der Merwe.
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