Tim Paine’s decision to declare when Warner on 335* criticized

David Warner was in fiery form as he struck an unbeaten 335 in the second Test against Pakistan in Adelaide on Saturday. It was his maiden triple century and also the first by an Australian after Matthew Hayden’s knock of 380. Just when it seemed like the left-hander would get a chance to chase the highest Test score – 400, by Brian Lara – skipper Tim Paine declared, bringing a premature end to an entertaining inning.

The Aussies were 589 for 3 at the time and managed to reduce the Pakistanis to 96 for 6 at the end of Day 2 in the Day-Night Test. Given that three whole days of the game still remain, Paine’s decision to declare when Warner was batting at a strike rate of 80.14 has been heavily criticized. If he could have batted for even 45 minutes more, the opener could have stood a handsome chance of scaling the 400-run mark summit that had been set by legend Lara.

Some of the remarks following Paine’s decision are:

“Big decision by Tim Paine to declare with Warner approaching Lara’s world record score of 400. This is the most admirable aspect of Aussie cricket: personal milestones secondary to team interest. Warner must rest content at getting past Bradman’s highest score. In itself huge!”, tweeted @Cricketwallah

Big decision by Tim Paine to declare with Warner approaching Lara’s world record score of 400. This is most admirable aspect of Aussie cricket: personal milestones secondary to team interest. Warner must rest content at getting past Bradman’s highest score. In itself huge!

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) November 30, 2019

Here’s another Tweet

Why Tim paine why???
Your decision makes harder for #DavidWarner @davidwarner31 to beat Lara 's @BrianLara 400* in test cricket history…… pic.twitter.com/BPZQgJqR6E

— Raja Guru (@Guru20Guru) November 30, 2019

It must be remembered that 30th November marks the 31st birth anniversary of Phil Hughes, the Aussie cricketer who passed away after a bouncer had hit him on the back of his head in 2014. 408 was Hughes’ Baggy Green number, and with Warner often sharing posts of the two, remembering Hughes as his little brother, the tribute, then, would have been a perfect one.

However, that was not to be.

Warner’s 335* is the tenth highest individual score in Test cricket. The day was also marked by Steven Smith’s record, where he became the fastest ever cricketer in the globe to get to 7000 Test runs.