CRICKET – Hometown hero Alex Carey rode his luck to a first Ashes century to rescue Australia as England’s bowlers toiled in an Adelaide Oval cauldron on a scorching opening day of the third Test yesterday.
The wicketkeeper’s 106 helped drive Australia to 326 for eight at stumps, with Mitchell Starc (33 not out) and Nathan Lyon, scoreless off 18 balls, having provided stubborn tail-end resistance.
Carey survived a caught-behind decision on 72 with the help of a glitch with the review technology before going on to score his third Test century.
In front of a big family gathering in the sell-out crowd of 56,298 at his home stadium, Carey raised his bat and his head to the sky in a tribute to his father who died of leukaemia in September.
Carey was ably backed by Usman Khawaja, who capitalised on his late inclusion in place of an unwell Steve Smith by scoring 82 off 126 balls.
The pair combined in a crucial 91-run stand that pulled the hosts from peril after they were reduced to 94 for four straight after lunch.
Trailing 2-0 in the series, England’s hopes of keeping the Ashes alive suffered an early blow when home captain Pat Cummins won the toss and put his team in to bat on a firm wicket begging for a big score.
By stumps, with the temperature still hovering around 35 degrees Celsius (95F), England’s prospects appeared bleak after Carey and Starc pushed the hosts past 300.
With day two expected to hit 39 degrees, the tourists will be desperate for quick wickets in the morning to avert another punishing day in the field.
Yet again, England had moments of ascendancy but were unable to take their chances.
Khawaja was the chief beneficiary, being dropped on three by Harry Brook at second slip with a thick edge off the bowling of recalled paceman Josh Tongue.
A diving Brydon Carse put down a tougher chance to remove Carey for 52 when he smashed Archer into the covers.
Captain Ben Stokes burned two of England’s reviews trying to dislodge Carey, first for lbw when he was on 52 and later for the caught-behind appeal off the bowling of recalled seamer Josh Tongue.
Carey admitted he may have “feathered” the ball but a noise picked up by the ‘Snicko’ technology did not align with the ball travelling by the bat on review of the delivery, so the decision stood.
Yesterday’s cheers for Carey came two years after he became the villain of the 2023 Ashes for throwing down Jonny Bairstow’s stumps in a controversial run-out during the second Test at Lord’s.
He was eventually caught for 106 trying to slog-sweep the spin of Will Jacks, sending a top-edge soaring.
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