Carey’s position saved by DRS

ALEX Carey has alleviated the pressure on his position in the most dramatic of circumstances, by winning two hairline decisions that left England fans aghast in Hobart.

No umpiring calls could ever be closer without being given out, with literally a millimetre or two saving Carey’s bacon and ensuring he could power on to an important 49 and head to the Test tour of Pakistan in March with some much-needed confidence and form under his belt.

England was set a target of 271 to win the final Test, after Mark Wood claimed six wickets to bowl Australia out for just 155.

But if not for the barest of margins, England could have been chasing much less under lights at Bellerive.

Carey played a lamentable shot to drag the ball onto his stumps with a bottom edge in the 37th over, until Australian third umpire Paul Reiffel put the microscope over Chris Woakes’ front foot and deemed

he was guilty of a front-foot no ball.

Australia would have been 7-92 with a lead of just 207 if Reiffel hadn’t overruled, with the keeper-batsman 19 at the time when he was called back to the crease from halfway out to the boundary rope.

The good fortune continued when he was on 30 and a Stuart Broad lbw was overturned on DRS review because a fraction too much of the ball was shown by ball tracking to be pitching outside leg stump.

Carey was averaging 15 coming into the final Test, and was also smarting after a couple of basic dropped catches in the Sydney Test.

Josh Inglis gave Carey a run for his money for Tim Paine’s keeping vacancy at the start of the summer, and would have been keeping the heat on leading into Pakistan as well.

But Carey’s crucial second innings runs in Hobart will be enough to keep the wolves from the door and allow him to prepare for Pakistan without the fear of his position being in jeopardy.