Bairstow celebrates century by 'headbutting' his helmet

The England wicketkeeper showed dry wit when he reached three figures in Perth

Jonny Bairstow celebrated a century in Perth by ‘headbutting’ his helmet.

The England wicketkeeper reached three figures - his fourth Test century - on the second morning of the third Ashes clash in Perth as he and Dawid Malan piled on the runs for England.

Two weeks after the story of Bairstow’s unconventional greeting of Cameron Bancroft in a local bar was broken by Australian media, the Yorkshireman showed a dry wit in gently nuzzling his headgear as he lapped up the crowd’s applause.

While it was more Eskimo kiss than full-on heabutt, the gesture was still noticeable, and quickly picked up on by fans on social media.

Bairstow had come under fire following revelations that his and Bancroft’s “heads met” at The Avenue in the Western Australian city on the first night of England’s tour.

He and the English team’s management shrugged off the incident at the time and Bairstow later wrote in a newspaper column that he felt he had been “stitched up” by the story, which came to light after comments made by Australia’s fielders had been picked up on a stump microphone.

Bairstow and Malan took their partnership well beyond 200 on Friday morning, as England looked to ram home their superiority in the Test match.

The pair’s stand beat the previous England record for the fifth wicket in all Test matches against Australia and moved to the top of the list of England partnerships at the WACA.

When Malan was eventually dismissed, skewing a leading edge into the hands of Peter Handscomb off Nathan Lyon, the two had put on 237 to take the visitors to 368 for five.

Bairstow later fell for 119 as England lost six wickets for 35 runs to be bowled out for 403.

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