Before he was caught in the T20 World Cup semi-final off a ball he didn’t hit, the Australia opener proved his mettle
In the end, the story didn’t entirely deliver for David Warner. But in the end, it delivered enough. For what has felt like so long in the compressed world of short-course cricket, Australia’s opening bat has been out of form, out of runs, out of time, and eventually just out. The one thing he hasn’t been is out of patience. Warner’s reservoir of self-belief is profound enough to hide Loch Ness’s secrets. When he faces a struggle, he endures it until it passes. As he has creaked and stuttered after a couple of difficult stints in the IPL, he hasn’t gone chasing runs with desperate swipes at the ball. He has waited for runs to come back to him.
In recent matches at the T20 World Cup, they have started returning. But in Thursday night’s semi-final win over Pakistan, it was rhythm that came back to Warner as well. It came back even while Shaheen Shah Afridi was running wild.
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