Alex Carey’s disciplined first half-century of the year has spelt good news for Australia’s push at the World Test Championship final – and has proved that his wife Eloise is one good judge.
The gloveman’s dismissal for 48 when going well in the first innings at The Oval came about with an injudicious reverse sweep against Ravindra Jadeja – the fourth time in Test cricket this year he’s been out while employing that risky shot.
It brought to mind the debate he had had with his “harshest critic”, wife Eloise, who had not exactly been a fan of him using the reverse sweep as his unorthodox method of countering spin in the sub-continent.
“My wife is the harshest critic of the reverse. She says, ‘don’t play the bloody reverse sweep, not again!’
“But I just politely tell her, ‘you haven’t played the game. Yes, you’re going to get out to reverse sweeps and sweeps … but it can also produce some success as well.”
Er, not so much this term, though.
Carey has played the shot 16 times in Tests this year – that’s one dismissal in every four attempts. It really doesn’t seem worth it.
Out of the repetoire
And the 31-year-old appeared to have come to the conclusion that Eloise was right on Saturday as he completely eschewed the shot, avoiding the temptation while facing 29 deliveries from Jadeja.
And although he had a struggle against the Indian maestro, it was Carey’s patient 66 not out that set the platform for Australia to home in on the World Test mace, as they’ll start the final day 280 ahead and needing seven more wickets.
In the half-a-dozen innings on the India tour after he’d scored his one and only hundred for Australia against South Africa in the Boxing Day Test, Carey had struggled, not getting past 36.
But at The Oval, he’s begun a big tour for him by scoring more runs in a single Test than ever before, with the prospect of a world title looming, despite the danger still posed by a developing partnership between Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane.
“We’ve got the runs on the board that we wanted,” Carey said. “It would definitely have been nice to have taken a couple of more wickets but India played well, so we’ve got to come back and push on tomorrow.
“They’ve got two class players in at the moment so we’ve got to stay patient. The pitch is still doing bits and pieces, but hopefully those chances for us will come.”
-AAP
