It was obviously a really good feeling to score a hundred on home soil, says Carey

Adelaide: Australia batter Alex Carey dedicated his century to his late father and family as he steered the hosts to a dominant position of 326/8 against England at the end of the opening day of the third Test at Adelaide Oval in Adelaide on Wednesday.

After a shaky start, which saw Australia slump to 94/4 soon after lunch, Carey, along with the last-minute addition of Usman Khawaja, added 91 runs for the fifth wicket to rescue Australia. Carey scored 106 off 143 balls. The South Australian, whose father Gordon died in September after a protracted battle with cancer, looked up to the sky after notching up his third Test century.

“You know the reasons why – I’m probably a bit emotional now,” Carey, who survived a controversial caught-behind review on 72, told reporters. “It was obviously a really good feeling to score a hundred on home soil.

“Family and friends were here... they would have been proud. They love coming to the cricket and watching me play. My kids are here, Eloise and mum and nieces – it would have been a really nice moment for them.

“We were in a little bit of a sticky situation there straight after lunch as well. So to form a partnership with Uzzie and, I guess, keep us in the fixture … was great.

“I would have loved to have scored more runs and been there a bit longer. But to be able to take the helmet off and look up to the heavens, it was a really nice moment.”

Steve Smith was ruled out of the third Test match with a potential vestibular issue. Smith’s last-minute withdrawal sees veteran batter Usman Khawaja returning to Australia’s set-up, who missed the first two Tests due to a back spasm.

However, Carey believes Khawaja has more to offer with the bat. “I still think he’s got so much to give to this group,” he said. “We saw him again today, and he played really well.”

Even though the wickets continued to fall from the other end, the wicketkeeper batter stood his ground to notch up his third Test century and his first in front of his home crowd.

This achievement was significant for Carey, who looked skyward in tribute to his late father, who passed away in September from leukaemia. The 34-year-old also became Australia’s leading run-scorer in Tests this year, surpassing Steve Smith’s 618 runs to rank sixth in the world for runs in the format this year.

However, the century didn’t come without controversy. Carey survived an early chance in the inning when he flashed at the first ball of the 63rd over of Josh Tongue as wicketkeeper Jamie Smith and fielder appealed and celebrated for the caught behind, but was dropped down by the standing umpire Ahsan Raza as England reviewed his decision almost immediately.

There was a spike shown in the snickometer, but it appeared two to three frames before the ball passed the bat. Chris Gaffaney, the TV umpire, said that the spike was “before the bat” and that the ball appeared to have “gone well under” the bat: “There’s a clear gap, no spike.”

“I thought there was a bit of a feather or some sort of noise when it passed the bat. It looked a bit funny on the replay, didn’t it, with the noise coming early? If I were given out, I think I would have reviewed it — probably not confidently, though. It was a nice sound as it passed the bat, yeah.

“Snicko obviously didn’t line up, did it? That’s just the way cricket goes sometimes, isn’t it? You have a bit of luck, and maybe it went my way today,” said Carey. IANS

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