Australian opener David Warner opened up after smashing 163 against the Green Shirts at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, India, on Friday and provided his fitness update.
The 36-year-old stated that his groin was not fine and there were cramps at the moment. He also opened up on the record 259-run partnership with Mitchell Marsh.
“It (groin) is a little bit sore, all cramps at the moment, that's all it is. It (partnership with Marsh) was awesome, once we got the pace of the wicket, we were going to try and target their bowlers,” Warner said in a post-match ceremony.
“For us to go out there and put a performance like that is very pleasing. Committing and backing my skills, I had a good hit yesterday, it was ticking along, I was just one bit of luck away and it helps when you're hitting the ball out of the middle.”
Warner then revealed that he and Marsh kept telling each other that both of them had to play till 35 overs at least because of the ground they were playing in was compartively small.
“Playing on a ground like this as well, you got to take those chances. Just to get out there and build a partnership with Mitch today. We spoke about trying to bat till 35 overs at least and then probably score heavily in the back end.
“From our perspective, there's a little bit of tinkering there we got to work on, we lost 5 or 6 wickets in the last 10. Every run is valuable, part of my DNA is to run hard between wickets, I have always done that and I'll always continue to keep doing that as long as I keep playing.”
The Aussies managed to restrict the Green Shirts to 305 runs after posting a colossal 368-run target courtesy of a 259-run stand from David Warner and Mitchell Marsh.
Pakistan were off to a great start as their opening duo of Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique had a 134-run partnership — the first time a Pakistani opening pair had a century stand against Australia in a World Cup match.
The Green Shirts kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and were soon all out for 305 runs in 45.3 overs.
Batting first, Australia posted 367 runs on the scoreboard, recording the biggest total against Pakistan in the World Cup.
Shaheen Afridi was the pick of the bowlers for Pakistan as the 23-year-old bagged five wickets, his second World Cup fifer.
- David Warner