‘I was trying not to keep up with him’

Victor Trumper. Charlie Macartney. Don Bradman. Majid Khan. David Warner. The only five men ever to score a Test century before lunch on the first day. No Virender Sehwag. No Chris Gayle. Just five men in the 140 years of Test history, in the 2245 Tests that have ever been played. Warner’s achievement on the first day in Sydney, when he reached the milestone in the last over before lunch, was a surprise even to him.

“It’s an honour to be alongside those names,” Warner said. “I had absolutely no idea about that stat. I knew about hundreds in a session, but not that stat at all.”

It was not the only innings of significance on the first day against Pakistan. Warner’s opening partner, Matt Renshaw, went to stumps on 167, a remarkable feat for a man of only 20 years of age. The previous-highest score Test score by any Australian as young as Renshaw was the 164 made by Archie Jackson in Adelaide in 1929. In the last over of the day, Renshaw passed Jackson’s mark.

It was a sign of how significantly Renshaw had accelerated that he was able to reach 167, for at the lunch break he was sitting on 25, while Warner had already reached triple figures. Warner said his first inkling that he might be able to bring up his hundred before lunch came when he was on 80, with about 25 minutes left in the session. In the end, he took it right to the wire, getting there off the second ball of the last over of the session.

“I kept on saying to the youngster, ‘don’t worry about me, worry …

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