Stats: David Warner's highs against and in South Africa

David Warner’s much-talked record against the South Africans in the Test format worked well as the Australian opener started of the Test tour of South Africa with a fifty. Warner scored 51 off 79 balls with six fours in the opening session of the first Test in Durban after Australia elected to bat first. The left-hander played saw through Cameron Bancroft and Usman Khawaja before edging one into the slip cordon just before the lunch interval.

In the 18 Test innings against South Africa, Warner scored four fifties and four hundreds with the best score of 145. During his 51-run knock, the Australian completed 1000 Test runs against the Saffers scoring at an average of 57.55. Thus, Warner became the 30th player and the 8th Australia to score 1000 runs in this format against the Proteas. By reaching 1000 runs in his 18th innings, Warner became the joint second quickest to achieve this milestone.

England’s Denis Compton and Australia’s Neil Harvey completed 1000 runs against SA in their 13th innings in the 8th match they played against them. Former Australian skipper Michael Clarke also took as many as 18 innings as Warner to complete 1000 runs against the African nation. Among the 30 players with 1000 Test runs against South Africa, only six players needed fewer than 20 innings to reach the milestone. England’s Frank Woolley needed 34 innings to reach the milestone, the slowest among all.

Quickest to 1000 Test runs against South Africa:

Warner’s record is even better when it comes to Test matches in South Africa as the 32-year-old aggregated a total of 543 runs during the 2014 tour in only three Tests with three centuries and two fifties. Warner scored 594 runs at an average of 84.85 with six 50+ scores in the seven Test innings in South Africa. Warner failed to score a fifty in his maiden outing in South Africa (Scored 12 runs).

Warner recorded his 6th consecutive fifty-plus score on the South Africa soil with the 51 in the ongoing Durban Test. Thus, Warner became the first player with 50+ scores six consecutive Test innings in South Africa. England’s Wally Hammond and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis had five fifty-plus scores in five consecutive Test innings before Warner.

Most consecutive fifty-plus scores in Test cricket in South Africa:

(Stats as on March 1, 2018)