After getting a distasteful ‘kick’ send-off from Oman pacer Kaleemullah, Australia’s David Warner nearly entered the wrong dressing room.
Oman may be 17 places below Australia in the ICC Men’s T20I rankings, but they did not give an inch to the five-time ODI and one-time T20I World Champions when they took the field against the Mitchell Marsh-led side in a T20 World Cup Group B match at Bridgetown in Barbados on Thursday. They put Australia under a lot of pressure in the first half of their innings. Australia were 62/3 in 12 overs at one stage. It was only when Marcus Stoinis went berserk in the last few overs that the Kangaroos surged ahead.
Apart from Stoinis, there was another main character in Australia’s innings. That is David Warner. The opener had an eventful day in the middle. He struggled to hit the first boundaries but did not throw his wicket away. It was because he held one end up that Stoinis could swing his from the other end without much thought.
Warner ended up with 56 off 51 balls and, in the process, became Australia’s highest run-getter in T20Is, surpassing former captain Aaron Finch, who was incidentally in the commentary box when the left-hander broke his record. Finch, who opened the batting with Warner for many years, was seen waving to his former teammate from the commentary box. Warner, too, reciprocated it with a raise of the hand and a smile. Warner currently has 3155 in 104 T20Is. Finch finished with 3120 runs in 103 T20Is.
Aaron Finch’s reaction after David Warner breaks his record in T20Is
Kaleemullah’s distasteful ‘kick’ send-off to David Warner
A few overs after that, Warner was dismissed by Kaleemullah while trying to clear the long-off fence. The wicket meant a hell of a lot to the Oman pacer, who celebrated it aggressively. Kaleemullah let out a roar and showed a kick in Warner’s direction as the Australian opener turned his back to walk towards the dressing room.
David Warner forgets dressing room route
The drama didn’t end there. Warner was walking to the dressing room, alright, but not towards the Australian one. The left-hander mistakenly climbed the stairs of the Oman dressing room and only realised it halfway through. He then turned back and then moved towards the correct one.
Stoinis smashed a game-changing 67 not out off just 36 balls to power Australia to 164-5 and then took three wickets for 19 runs as Oman were restricted to 125-9 in reply.
“It was a nice start,” player of the match Stoinis said afterwards. “Maybe a few cobwebs for us but we’re better for it, and nice that we got the win.
“And nice that I got to spend some time in the middle and have a bit of a bowl.”
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