David Warner has gifted one lucky kid the gloves and helmet he wore in his final Test match for Australia.
Warner fell agonisingly short of hitting the winning runs in what would have been his dream farewell to the game, but he got the next best thing by making 57 in his final dig in front of his home Sydney crowd to steer the Aussies most of the way to victory over Pakistan.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: David Warner gifts young kid his gloves and helmet after final innings.
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The crowd fell deathly silent when DRS confirmed his dismissal, but they soon rose as one to give him a standing ovation as he left a Test arena as a player for the last time.
Security flocked to him as he approached the SCG members’ stand to make his way to the players’ dressing room through a sea of supporters trying to get a piece of him.
And in his final moments before disappearing up the stairs, he handed his helmet and gloves to a young kid who couldn’t believe his luck.
The youngster ran off in excitement and disbelief after securing a once-in-a-lifetime token.
“Well that is one lucky, lucky kid — helmet and gloves!” Alison Mitchell said on commentary. “Never mind the baggy green, he’s got the helmet.”
Warner got Australia to within 11 runs of victory before being trapped lbw for 57 by spinner Sajid Khan.
He 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 and he survived a near lbw call on 53.
But as is always the case with Warner when the ball came out of the middle of the bat it was imposing for the opposition.
His 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.
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.
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 came 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.
Pat Cummins added the scalp of Aamir to his first-innings five-wicket haul to make it 19 for the series, 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.
– With AAP
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