'Fields made me feel set'

Not long ago David Warner was not a particularly feared batsman in the subcontinent, but by the time he walked off in Chittagong yesterday having hit 123, an innings in high contrast to the one he hit in Mirpur exactly a week ago, he was looking like a subcontinent master.

Normally known for his swashbuckling style, which was on display during his 135-ball 135 in Mirpur last week, yesterday's ton was Warner's slowest and worth its weight in gold as it engineered a valuable 72-run lead with one wicket still to go as Australia look to be in control of their push to level the series. Although rating the 234-ball innings among the finest of his 20 Test tons, even the batsman had to admit that his innings was not just dictated by, but benefitted from, the opposition's tactics. 

“It also is dictated by the fields that they set and what they're trying to achieve as well,” said Warner when asked about it being his slowest hundred, and on a wicket that is much more friendly than the Mirpur one. “You pretty much felt in from ball one with the fields that they set; they didn't really have any attacking men around the bat compared to last game. It allowed me just to rotate the strike and not really have any need to leave the crease all the time. I felt the lengths they bowled were easily adaptable for me. Not easy, but I was able to get into a comfortable position frequently.”

A seasoned campaigner, Warner's hundred had as much to do with the physical skill to bat long periods as getting into the plans of Bangladesh and trying to thwart them.

“At the end of the day, they try and shut down the scoreboard. They try and cut your boundaries out and play that way, try and get you caught around the crease. And obviously look for that lbw dismissal or bowled through the gate. If you can negate that and you can manipulate the field, you're going to be facing a lot of balls and you've got to be prepared to bat long periods of time.”

With an overnight lead of 72, Warner seemed pretty comfortable with the situation the visitors in, but warned that the pitch may not deteriorate significantly.  “At the moment we've got a lead of 77 [72] I think it is, so we've got to try and capitalise on that tomorrow [Thursday] morning to push forward for maybe a hundred [run lead].

“I wouldn't say the wicket is deteriorating, there's a little bit of rough out there created from the bowlers. The middle of the wicket is still nice and true. But as the spinners do, they'll work what they need to do and hit those rough areas. But it's up to the batsmen obviously to work out what they want to do, if you want to sweep, if you want to lunge forward and negate that. There's going to be plans both sides.”