England’s day despite Carey’s emotional ton after big-money Green’s ‘bad mistake’ – The Sydney Morning Herald

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That’s all from me for the day. We’ll have all the day-one news and views from Adelaide Oval very soon.
If you had to push me either way, England take the day for mine. Australia are clearly right in the game, but England have given themselves a decent platform to control the match by batting well on the second day.
We’ll be back Thursday morning from 10am (AEDT) for day two of the third Test.
Michael Vaughan says Cameron Green needs to learn from his dismissal today.
Green was one of five Australian batters to lose his wicket in soft fashion, clipping what should have been an innocuous ball from Jofra Archer off his pads to mid-wicket for a second-ball duck.
“The conundrum around Cameron, he goes for huge amount of money so people are looking at that and then he plays a shot like that,” former England captain Vaughan said on Kayo Sports.
“You’ve got to remember Cameron Green is an all-rounder, he can have an impact.
“He has the opportunity to get three or four wickets and people forget that mistake today. Clearly, he has all the talent. He’s the player Australian can build a team around for a long, long time. He has to learn, that was a bad mistake.”
Brett Lee says Usman Khawaja’s return to form at No.4 has left selectors with a dilemma for the Boxing Day Test, when Steve Smith is expected to be available.
“The conundrum now is, what happens?” Lee said on Kayo Sports. “He’s [Khawaja has] proven he can bat at four. He wasn’t dropped through a lack of form, he was out injured. He’s come back now and peeled off 82, it’ll be a touchy one for selectors.”
Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon have survived the first three overs of the second new ball to take Australia to stumps at 8-326.
Considering Australia won the toss, the hot conditions and a pitch that is not offering much to the bowlers, England have won the day.
If they can wrap up the tail in the morning and keep Australia to around the 350 mark, they will have the chance to ram home their advantage. The forecast is for a high of 39 degrees on Thursday, which will make it very much a batter’s day.
Alex Carey raises his bat to the heavens. Credit: AP
Australia’s batters have offered England’s bowlers more than this pitch has. By my reckoning, five of Australia’s top seven departed in soft fashion. I’m giving Alex Carey an out as he did have 106 on the board when he holed out.
CricViz disagrees with me, but England are much better than a 28 per cent chance of winning this game.
The highlight of the day came from Carey, who hit his third Test ton and first in an Ashes series – raising his bat to the sky in tribute to his late father Gordon, the biggest figure in his cricket career.
Carey’s knock came when Australia were in trouble. Without him, Australia would be in deep trouble.
Jofra Archer is the pick of the bowlers. After the much talked about finish at the Gabba, Archer bowled like a man with a point to prove, returning figures of 3-29 from 16 overs. Against the rest of the attack, Australia are 5-297 from 67 overs.
Some interesting comments by former ICC umpire of the year Simon Taufel on Seven regarding a caught behind decision that went Alex Carey’s way.
This is the incident we’re talking about.
“The DRS was applied and for the third umpire to overturn the not out decision, we need to see a clear deflection off the bat, or we have to see a spike next to the bat or up to one frame past the bat,” Taufel said.
“The confusing element here for everyone was that the spike occurred at least a couple of frames before the bat. Which was just amazing. Now, JB (James Brayshaw), what was interesting in this particular case and in my experience, I have never seen a spike like this occur without the bat hitting something like a pad or the ground or the ball hitting the pad.
“There’s nothing else out there, absolutely nothing else out there, so my gut tells me from all of my experience on field and also as a TV umpire that I think Alex Carey has actually hit that ball and the technology calibration hasn’t been quite right to game the outcome that it was looking for.”
This is how Alex Carey was dismissed.
Alex Carey could not resist a slightly slower ball tossed up by Will Jacks, top-edging a slog sweep and caught by Jamie Smith running to mid-wicket. He’s out for 106 off 143 balls.
CricViz and the bookies have had Australia as a clear top pick for much of the day – and they still have. I won’t tell you the bookies’ price, because that’s not what we are about on this blog, but CricViz have Australia as a 72 per cent chance to win, England at 28 per cent.
Given the conditions, and the forecast for a high of 39 degrees on Thursday, England have had a very good day. They are on top here.
On a stinking hot day in Adelaide, the locals have produced a record Adelaide Oval cricket crowd of 56,298.
It tells you the drawing power of the Ashes. They’ve come from far and wide today. One of them is my colleague and AFL tipping pod partner Peter Ryan, who has made the trek from Geelong. We won’t cross to him this late in the day.
This is how Alex Carey brought up his third Test century, his first in Ashes cricket and in front of his home crowd in Adelaide.
That’s a thoroughly deserved century for hometown hero Alex Carey. He’s looked as sound as any Australian batsman at the crease this summer.
He’s scored more runs than anyone else for his country this calendar year too, and has now backed up an outstanding second Test behind the stumps. He’s in career-best form, and has thoroughly outplayed his counterpart Jamie Smith.
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