Warner's blue sky hundred

It was as if the heavens themselves decided that this was the day for cricket. Adelaide had been shrouded in a haze of clouds and the odd rain shower over the past few days, reflecting the grey countenance of all those involved in the game since the death of Phillip Hughes. But on Test match dawn the sky was the purest blue, ushering in the sort of morning when it was impossible not to yearn for a sight of the game.

After his captain Michael Clarke had won the toss and granted Australia first use of a pristine batting strip, David Warner looked skywards towards that endless blue, as though searching for a glimpse of Hughes. He did so when the two teams and the crowd acknowledged Hughes with 63 seconds of applause. He did again upon reaching 50, and once more when cresting 63.

When Warner punched through mid-off for his century, the eyes went up again, this time taken higher by his signature leaping celebration. First seen against India at the WACA Ground in January 2012, the jump has become a familiar sight for team-mates and opponents. This time Warner's back and neck arched a little further back, his triumphant yell directed not towards the stands, but to Hughes and the heavens. Scarcely a spine among the 25,619 present failed to tingle.

The emotion of Warner's innings was thus apparent all the way through. Recurring glances above recalled nothing so much as Darren Lehmann's century against Sri Lanka in Galle a decade ago, where he acknowledged David Hookes with similar reverence. But the triumph of this innings was that whenever a bowler entered his run and delivery stride, Warner's eyes were level and hands steady - he kept his emotions in check.

This sort of focus has not been easy for Warner in recent days. No cricketer was closer to Hughes in the horrible hour between his collapse on the SCG pitch and his conveyance to St Vincent's Hospital by ambulance. Perched at Hughes' side while medical staff worked on him, Warner held his friend's hand and spoke the most encouraging words he could muster. The struggle to comprehend what happened, then the grief of Hughes' death, have caused Warner's moods and emotions to swing. In preparation for this Test he even had to abandon one net session while struggling to find his focus.

Yet here and now, under Adelaide's blue sky, Warner made himself ready. For a batsman so often labelled impulsive, his composure was exemplary, his purpose was crystal clear. A slight jumble of feet when he ducked the first bouncer of the day was Warner's only misstep. Even the early flurry of boundaries that allowed Warner and Australia to gain the momentum arrived in a manner less risky than the scoreboard would suggest.

Mohammed Shami and Varun Aaron started the day with a plan to bowl around the wicket to Warner, perhaps hoping to tuck him up the manner that England once managed against Adam Gilchrist when they were also coached by Duncan Fletcher. But they drifted wide of the stumps, and without the angle across Warner that an over-the-wicket line would have provided. This reduced the degree of difficulty, and the flurry of boundaries prevented Virat Kohli from exerting any pressure on his first day as India's stand-in Test captain.

By the time Kohli had Shami and Aaron moving back over the wicket, Warner had already galloped to 34 from 16 balls, and much of the shine had been cuffed from the Kookaburra's surface. It was from over the wicket that Ishant Sharma tempted Chris Rogers into an airy drive and an edge to Shikhar Dhawan at second slip, but by then the Australian 50 had already been posted. Warner had bolted.

Though Shane Watson did not last, Warner demonstrated that not only is he enormously strong in mentality but he has also eclipsed Clarke as Australia's finest current batsman. Back and hamstring troubles have restricted Clarke's chances to find the rhythm and power of his batting peak, and an ill-timed recurrence would force him from the field when finding a little more fluent territory on 60. This has left Warner as the man most feared by opposing bowlers, capable of rapid bursts like that against the new ball but also more considered accumulation and manipulation of fields.

Nothing Kohli tried by way of field placings or bowling combinations troubled Warner, and it was ultimately waning energy and concentration that did for him. Karn Sharma's legbreaks were looped a little more teasingly in the late afternoon, and after Warner missed one tired-looking sweep, he connected too awkwardly with an attempted slog and shelled a catch to deep midwicket. His acknowledgement of the applause looked weary, having drained so much energy in finding a way to not only play but thrive two Tuesdays after Hughes was hit.

"It was quite tough early on there with the 63-second applause and getting through the national anthem that set me off a bit inside," Warner told Channel Nine. "I played with a lot of adrenaline there but really had to pull it back after I got going. Being there on the day it happened it was quite tough, the memories are still stuck in my head. But I spoke a lot to Michael Lloyd our psychologist, and the support from everyone has been amazing."

Warner's downbeat visage was to be mirrored by his team-mates in the final hour, as a late decline of 3 for 9 illustrated how hard it is to maintain vitality and resolution after the trials of the preceding two weeks. At the same time it showed how great Warner's effort had been, and how much he had honoured a fallen friend by his batting beneath the brilliant blue. Hughes would have enjoyed it.