Australia has kicked off their preparations for the upcoming ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 in an impressive way against South Africa. With a 2-0 lead already in their favor as Australia defeated South Africa in the second ODI.
In a historic accomplishment, Australian opener David Warner marked his 20th century in One Day Internationals (ODIs). Warner and his opening partner Travis Head launched off their innings with an aggressive style, rapidly collecting 109 runs for the opening wicket in just 12 overs. Unfortunately, Head retired after reaching a fast 64 runs off 36 balls, while Warner continued his superb form to achieve a record-breaking century.
This milestone sees David Warner overtake the legendary Sachin Tendulkar in terms of international centuries as an opener. Tendulkar had held this revered record with 45 hundreds, all accomplished in the format of ODIs over his brilliant career spanning 342 international innings. Warner, after his century against South Africa in Bloemfontein, now boasts 46 international centuries, and interestingly, all of them have come as an opener across the three formats of cricket.
David Warner’s batting brilliance extends beyond ODIs; he has also clocked up 25 Test centuries and one T20I century during his career. It’s significant that Warner constantly plays as an opener throughout all three forms, while Tendulkar batted at No. 4 in Tests and did not participate in T20Is after his debut against South Africa in 2006. Tendulkar’s achievement of hitting a century of centuries across his 24-year international career remains a rare and unparalleled milestone. Other prominent batters in the top 5 list of international centuries as openers include Chris Gayle (42), Sanath Jayasuriya (41), and Matthew Hayden (40).
Current Indian captain Rohit Sharma is hot on their heels, having an astounding 39 international hundreds as an opener in his career, establishing him at number 6 on this illustrious list. In the same game, Australian middle-order batsman Marnus Labuschagne also joined the century club after David Warner’s spectacular performance.
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