A hundred in Test cricket heaven: Carey, Khawaja save Australia’s blushes

2 months ago 3

Adelaide: A red ball, a hot day, and a raucous crowd that swelled to 56,298: a bigger gathering even than the throng who piled in here for “Bodyline”, some 93 years ago.

Day one of the Adelaide Oval Ashes Test was truly Test cricket in excelsis, and it was through a pair of proper Test cricketers that Australia avoided a first innings pratfall in a game that England must win to keep the series alive.

Alex Carey raises his bat to the heavens.

Alex Carey (106) and Usman Khawaja (82) showed a difference in Test-match class to some of their teammates in conditions that, being less quick and bouncy than Perth or Brisbane, rewarded the timeless qualities of concentration and shot selection.

Australia desperately needed the duo to stand up, having started the day with Steve Smith’s dramatic withdrawal from the side due to a recurrence of the vertigo problems that have occasionally affected him since 2019.

They were then afflicted by some faulty decision-making amid the top five. Jake Weatherald and Travis Head could have hastened a little more slowly, but it was the half-hearted shots played by Marnus Labuschagne and Cameron Green in the first over after lunch that stuck most prominently in the craw.

Labuschagne looked in excellent touch, as he has done all series, but flattered to deceive. Green, his pockets leaking cash after a $4 million price tag in the Indian Premier League auction, played a shot at best distracted, at worst purely careless.

Josh Inglis played with typical hustle, but his caffeinated tempo always suggests a chance is coming, and Josh Tongue benefited when a break-back was dragged onto the stumps.

That meant so much depended on Khawaja and Carey. Khawaja had reckoned with the possible end of his Test career this week, when Australia initially chose to leave him out of the team despite his return to full fitness following back spasms.

For several weeks now there has been a hostile undercurrent to much public comment about Khawaja, along the lines that he is past it and has no right to stand in the way of younger players. The folly of these arguments was made plain by how Khawaja built an innings of substance, rotating strike, finding the boundary with his pet pull and sweep shots, and defending stoutly.

If Khawaja had been given a reprieve on five when Harry Brook dropped a slips chance, then it was no more than the Australians have come to expect from a touring side that has taken the odd stunner (Zak Crawley snaffled one to dismiss Head) but overall failed to maintain standards of winning Ashes teams.

Khawaja made a point of going after Will Jacks, who found a degree of purchase out of the surface that will have interested Nathan Lyon.

Compelled by the heat, Ben Stokes used Jacks more expansively than he had in Brisbane, and it was with turn that he ultimately spooked Khawaja into error. The ball after a sharp off-break beat his outside edge, Khawaja returned to the sweep, but there was enough turn to bring a slight top edge and a catch in the deep.

That left Carey to take centre stage, somewhat fortunately after he was reprieved by an out-of-sync “Snicko” spike when he appeared to edge Tongue behind on 72. After cheering the not-out verdict, the crowd settled in for what is becoming an annual century celebration.

After Greg Blewett’s debut century in January 1995, Adelaide had waited more than 20 years for a home-town hundred. But following Head’s hat-trick of centuries over the past three seasons, the village green behind the members saw a brief loss of occupancy as spectators crammed in to watch Carey glide towards the milestone.

Four years ago, Carey had made a handy 51 in his first Ashes Test here, but he was still very much a work-in-progress. Two years ago, he was shaken by some despicable threats and abuse from English fans following his legitimate stumping of Jonny Bairstow, and for a time lost his batting mojo.

But a match-winning 98 in Christchurch righted the ship for Carey early in 2024, and last summer he went to another level both for Australia and also South Australia.

His dominant contribution to a first Sheffield Shield win since 1996 made Carey a legend in these parts, before he reckoned with the premature death of his father, Gordon, to leukemia in September. A family man and popular teammate, Carey had spent much of match eve wandering around Adelaide Oval with his eldest son, Louis.

Wife Eloise wept openly in the crowd when, with a sweet cover drive off Stokes, Carey went from 98 to 101 and looked wistfully to the sky before acknowledging the crowd’s adulation.

“To make a hundred here in front of home fans and family was special and, well, I guess you know as well why I was looking to the heavens,” Carey said after play. “I’m trying not to tear up, but, no, it was great. And to have, Mum, [my] brother, [my] sister, Eloise, the kids ... it was a great moment.

“Dad played the biggest role probably in my cricket, [and] coached me all the way through as dads want to do. [He] sort of let me go once I got into my older teenage years, but would always shoot a message and [say], ‘Put the reverse sweep away’ and keep hard on me. It was great.”

In the minute or so after he got to three figures, Carey was serenaded with the loving chant of his name. As a young man, he had not quite made the grade in AFL ranks, but is now carving out a career to transcend a surname more synonymous with football.

It was to be Jacks who also found a way past Carey, coaxing a top edge on the orthodox sweep. But with Khawaja, Carey had ensured that Australia did not fully squander batting first. Now it will be up to England to show some Test match quality. Otherwise, the urn will be gone.