ALEX KEEPS THE
CAREY’S CRUCIAL KNOCK STAVES OFF LETHAL WOOD
ALEX Carey has alleviated the pressure on his position in the most dramatic of circumstances, by winning two hairline decisions which 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.
England was set a target of 271 to win the final Test, after Mark Wood claimed six to bowl Australia out for just 155 and give the home side a timely clip that there’s still plenty of improvement needed to fulfil its goal of world domination.
But if not for the barest of margins, England could have been chasing much less under lights at Bellerive Oval.
Carey played a lamentable shot to drag the ball on to his stumps with a bottom edge in the 37th over, until Australian third umpire Paul Reiffel deemed Chris Woakes 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 wicketkeeper-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 because a fraction too much of the ball was shown by ball tracking to be pitching outside leg stump.
Broad was astonished at the DRS verdict, but not nearly as horrified as the reaction of former England great Ian Botham to the Woakes’ no ball.
Botham felt it was a howler from Reiffel and he received support from former ICC umpire Simon Taufel, who didn’t feel there was sufficient evidence for the wicket to be taken off Woakes at a critical point in the Test when England was in with a massive sniff of reducing Australia to a low total.
Instead, the left-hander skipped away and only fell a run short of what would have been a well-made half century when Broad eventually had him out nicking.
“I’m afraid I don’t agree with that decision. When the heel comes down the back part of the heel is at least, fractionally behind the line in my opinion,” Botham said on Channel 7 of the no-ball call.
“It’s not where the foot ends up, it’s where it comes down. I thought there was enough doubt.”
Former leading umpire Taufel felt Carey should have been given out and left to rue an Ashes series turned sour with bat and gloves.
“Conclusive evidence is required for that front foot no ball to be called,” Taufel said on Channel 7.
“If they’re the pictures the third umpire is seeing, I don’t think I’d overrule that and call that a no ball.” Carey was averaging 15 coming into the final Test, and he 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.
National selectors will want to give Carey an extended run behind the stumps.
But numbers are important for a keeper, even though the South Australian’s batting average has been affected by two selfless acts where he volunteered to open the batting for an injured David Warner in Brisbane and slogged first ball in Sydney for a declaration.
Umpires Paul Wilson and Rod Tucker had a tricky first session on day three, with DRS tripping them up on a couple of occasions.
Carey looked out lbw to Broad in the 46th over, with Australia 234 in front and facing the prospect of going eight wickets down.
Some of the ball was shown to be pitching in line, but not enough of it to satisfy DRS.
Australia resumed on 3-37 and former skipper Steve Smith’s summer struggles continued when he fell into a short-ball trap set by Mark Wood (6-37) to be out for 27. England gave Australia a timely clip around the ears that showed there’s still plenty of work to go if they’re to fulfil their ambitions of world domination after a sub-part batting performance where batsmen didn’t play Wood smartly
at all.
tampering affair when he scored an earth-quaking 774 runs at 110 against England in England in 2019. That was also the series when he was struck by England’s rampaging fast man Jofra Archer and ruled out of the Lord’s Test with concussion.
This was the first Ashes series for a decade which has not featured a Smith century.
Smith’s best score in this series was 93 in Adelaide but he never really looked settled.
Because he is such an idiosyncratic sort of player with more movements than a circus juggler, it’s difficult to get an accurate read on his body language.
But he has looked particularly restless at the crease, as if he was snatching for form which used to flow naturally, if via all sorts of quirky channels.
Several dismissals have been his own fault, such as his last one and getting bowled by left-arm spinner Jack Leach – something which may come down to a concentration lapse.
Smith’s figures may be the result of teams doing extra homework on him.
Each team which has played him recently has tried something different. New Zealand, via Neil Wagner, bounced him with short balls, and India bowled straight and gave him no width. The shortpitched plan, which worked for England, now is a major weapon against him.
There is also a feeling that in Test cricket, unless your name is Bradman, most great batsmen build their records on three or four amazing years which are balanced out by some poor series and so-so ones in the middle, and it all rounds out to an average of around 50.
Smith had five years out of six when he played more than eight Tests and averaged more than 70. It was freakish stuff.
Logic suggests the forces of gravity would eventually whittle down that average.
It must be said this series has been a rugged one for batsmen on plenty of bowlerfriendly decks in which bowlers have often been kings.