Warner plays his greatest hits in fitting hometown farewell

All the different ways Australia are going to miss David Warner might not yet be entirely apparent – but his final innings spelled out several of them.

The fairytale farewell Warner wanted went almost perfectly to script as the opener bowed out with a match-winning hand in his final act in Test cricket, scoring a brisk half-century to ice what could otherwise have been a nervous fourth-innings run chase.

While the 37-year-old falling lbw to Sajid Khan after an entertaining battle with Pakistan's expressive off-spinner denied him a chance at hitting the winning runs, the almost 25,000-strong SCG crowd sent off their hometown hero with a rousing ovation.

"It meant the world to me," he told reporters after his 75-ball 57 clinched an eight-wicket win and a 3-0 NRMA Insurance series win. "Today just showed to me that I do have a lot of support, and I'm very grateful and thankful for that."

Warner leaves a hole to fill not just in terms of runs scored – 8,690 of them, the most ever by Australian opener – but also the pace at which he has scored them.

The left-hander finishes with a career average of 44.59 and a strike-rate of 70.19.

Of Test players with at least 2,500 runs, the only others to have averaged over 40 and held a strike-rate above 70 are Adam Gilchrist, Virender Sehwag and Viv Richards.

"One thing (Australia will miss) is the style that he plays - a run-a-ball fifty on a tricky wicket (showed that)," said captain Pat Cummins.

"But also, Test cricket, you play in all kinds of conditions and losing someone that has played (more than) 100 Test matches is pretty hard to fill.

"He's played on those kind of wickets all around the world before, he knows what works, what doesn't.

"He brings out reverse-sweeps and starts using his feet towards the spinners and gets ahead of the game quickly.

"It was a good reminder of what an experienced and high-class cricketer Davey is and we're going to miss."

Having essentially saved his Test career during last year's UK tour by following urgings from Cummins and coach Andrew McDonald to trust his attacking instincts, Warner took an even more belligerent approach to the crease on Saturday.

Lesser players might have gone into their shells after watching Sajid pin Usman Khawaja on the crease in the first over of the innings to leave the Aussies reeling at 1-0.

Instead, Warner went on the attack to Pakistan's biggest threat on a low, worn surface while wielding (according to his IPL coach, Ricky Ponting) a bat designed to have its sweet spot further down the blade and more ordinarily used on the subcontinent.

What followed was a essentially a compilation of his greatest hits.

First, the left-hander pulled out the switch hit against Sajid off the 14th ball he faced, the kind of shot few would have dared to play so early in their innings when he first arrived on the international scene 15 years ago.

In the spinner's following over, he skipped down the track and deposited him over long-on for another boundary.

A blistering cut off paceman Mir Hamza, as well as a pair of cover-drives off Sajid, were reminders that Warner still never misses out when given room to free his hands.

His scampering of twos alongside fellow hare Marnus Labuschagne showed he remains as fit as ever, which he attributed to his wife Candice, a former ironwoman who has transformed his professionalism over the course of their relationship.

"Early doors I probably didn't understand what it was about to be an athlete at this level," he said.

"I was burning the candle at both ends – she didn't understand how we drank so much as cricketers.

"(Meeting her) was something that really sparked me to get out of that second gear and understand what it's about to play cricket for Australia, how to back up and be physically fit to have longevity in the game."

Warner's last innings even had an ode to his opportunistic side, and constant vigilance, when he stole a cheeky leg-bye single while Pakistan were appealing an lbw.

Labuschagne, whose final stand with Warner registered at 119 runs, says he will be poorer for not having the veteran down the other end.

"His intent that he showed, his energy he brings to the crease just drags me along," Labuschagne told cricket.com.au.

"I think you saw a better side of me today which I credit a bit to him … He brings that high-energy component out in me, that high intensity, putting the pressure back on the bowlers.

"I think sometimes I don't do that as well when I'm not batting with Dave.

"I'm really going to miss that."

Not everything Warner tried came off – there was an audacious reverse-ramp attempt off Hasan Ali, a miscue off Sajid that the back-tracking Aamir Jamal could not quite reel in at mid-on, while Sajid eventually dismissed him after a number of close calls.

But by then the game had been decided and Warner’s imprint on it was writ large.

When he walked back out onto the SCG hours after the Test had finished, it was to lead the Australian team song at the behest of Nathan Lyon – a fitting way to go out.

NRMA Insurance Test series v Pakistan

First Test: Australia won by 360 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 79 runs

Third Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Steve Smith, Mitch Starc, David Warner

Pakistan squad: Shan Masood (c), Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afridi