Sydney: Australian opener David Warner today said that a good pitch coupled with India's poor bowling and fielding helped him score his third hundred of the series and place Australia at a commanding 348 for two at stumps on day one of the fourth and final cricket Test here.
Warner hit 101 and Chris Rogers made 95 as Australia put on 200 runs for the opening wicket to give the hosts a rousing start. The batsmen benefitted from some poor fielding, as Rogers was dropped on 19 by KL Rahul at second slip, while Shane Watson, too, enjoyed a life as R Ashwin let go off a chance at first slip off the penultimate ball of the day.
“When you are not fielding at your best, then everything else also doesn't go in your favour. If your tempo is upbeat from the start, you take those chances. We too have done it before, dropped a couple of chances in the slips,” Warner said after the first day's play.
“It does really set your tone from ball one, if you're up and about that sets you. We try and thrive on that when we see that. I think their heads were down when we were 100 for no loss and that's expected some times in the field. They didn't get their line and length right.
“Also there was no swing and sideways movement so you have to try and dry up the runs somehow. It must have been frustrating for Virat Kohli because it is tough to captain when the bowlers bowl both sides of the wicket,” he explained.
Warner, however, admitted that Australia were lucky to have won the toss.
“We were lucky that the coin fell our way and it was a fantastic toss to win. 348/2 is a fantastic position to be in. There was no swing or sideways movement at all, so it was quite challenging for the Indian bowlers. It's going to be challenging for us to take 10 wickets as well. We have to dry runs up when we bowl,” Warner said.
