No target is too many: Warner

Quick Single: Test slipping away from Australia

It was a typically bullish David Warner who fronted the media after day three of the first Test in Dubai. With Pakistan leading by 189 and still with 10 wickets in hand, a question was posed of Australia's first-innings centurion.

"How many is too many?" Warner repeated. "Nothing's too many."

It may have seemed a flippant, throwaway remark, dismissive of the suggestion there might be a limit to what could be achieved. Another sporting cliché lest any weakness be shown to the opposition.

Yet among Australia's batsmen, David Warner is best placed to back up his assertion with a match-winning performance.

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Run-scoring records have already fallen during this Test. Pakistan's 454 was the highest first innings total here. And Warner himself made history by becoming just the seventh Australian to score three or more consecutive Test centuries.

It was on this point, on his place in history, that Warner was his least effusive.

"It comes with a lot of luck," he said. "I had a couple of chances dropped in South Africa and here if I was reviewed (on 84, when struck on the pad) I was out as well.

"That's the game, sometimes it's in your favour sometimes you nick the first few in your next couple of innings. You have to keep riding that rollercoaster of being in form."

Having batted on the same pitch in the Twenty20 match here on October 5, where he piled up a half-century, and again for the second one-day international, Warner was also well placed to judge the pitch.

"I think it has been the same as day one, very consistent, it is coming through nice with the new ball then it slows up a bit and spin comes into play," said Warner.

"It is about us as a batting group to think about how we played out there and to make the most of it in the second innings."

After a long hot month, a tired old pitch is beginning to play tricks. Pakistan's spinners made the most of it with some sharp turn out of the footmarks, although Warner said it was more failings from Australia's batsmen than tricks from Pakistan's bowlers.

"You have got to be disciplined and for us now it is about drying up the runs and trying to be aggressive with our spinners to take wickets," said Warner.

"There’s a bit of turn there but it is turn that is outside the areas – the bowlers are going to have to pitch it out wide and it will be easy to sweep as a batsman rather than being defensive.

"(Batting) is not easy, it is hard to get set from ball one, it is quite hard to score with the fields set the way they are.

"You have to be able to bat time. My game is to go out there and get on with it and create scoring opportunities; that is what I do.

"A lot of the other guys like to get themselves in but with the wicket the way it is, is hard to get set."

Warner said the run-out of Alex Doolan rankled – "you shouldn’t be giving run out chances in Test match cricket" – but his own dismissal to a ball that turned sharply out of the footmarks from debutant spinner Yasir Shah was the result of the batsman being "too cute".

"I tried to be too cute and look for a run and played all around it," said Warner.

"Credit to him he got me out but I was looking to score and I made a half tracker look like a good ball."

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Bullish words from the Bull, but Australia is in a difficult position. The Australian way, Michael Clarke's way, is to play aggressive cricket and go for the win. It will not be easy.

"It's hard to go out there and score runs fast. With the ball turning it'll be quite tough," said Warner.

"They're going to want to get as many runs as they can as fast as they can but we'll try and shut the scoreboard down and take wickets at the same time.

"We have to come out and play the way we can and play our best cricket.

"We have to dig deep now. Tomorrow will be a long day. We have to fight hard and take 10 wickets."