Polarising Warner Bows out With Australia World Cup Exit

AFP/APP

Sydney:David Warner’s 15-year international career came to an anti-climactic end on Tuesday as Australia were dumped out of the T20 World Cup in excruciating fashion.

Australia and Warner could only watch on powerless as Afghanistan instead reached the semi-finals by beating Bangladesh by a nail-biting eight runs.

Australia’s fate had hung in the balance after India defeated them by 24 runs in St. Lucia on a day of high drama.

The 37-year-old opening batsman Warner had always said the World Cup in the United States and Caribbean would be his farewell to international cricket.

He couldn’t have imagined going out quite like this.

The combative Warner stood tall at the top of the Australian order ever since his international debut in January 2009, and as opening partners came and went.

He hangs up his pads as arguably Australia’s greatest three-format player. He is the country’s leading run-scorer in T20 cricket with 3,277 from 110 games.

Warner exited a glittering 112-Test career in January after plundering 8,786 runs at an average of 44.60, with a strike rate of 70.19. His one-day exploits were equally impressive, crunching 6,932 runs from 161 matches.

Warner was also one of the most consistent slip fielders in the game, whose name was among the first on the team sheet.

“He is probably our greatest-ever three-format player. He’ll be a loss,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald said recently.

 “Other people have been gunning for him for a period of time, but for us internally, we’ve seen the great value and what he brings to the table, hence why we’ve kept picking him.”