NEWS
Follow UsLess than 24 hours ago, Alex Carey’s place in the Test side had come under severe scrutiny even though he’d taken a record-equalling 10 catches in a single Test. And that was down to his returns with the bat, which had been waning post the first Ashes Test against England at Edgbaston.
Heading into the second Test in Christchurch, Carey had averaged 26.47 across his last 18 Test innings with just three fifties, and had registered scores of 10 and 3 in Wellington. A good knock in the first innings would have done a world of good to both him and the side, but the left-hander perished for just 14 to ensure that his numbers took a further dent.
The triple failure, combined with his poor returns across the past eight months, had fans and experts debating his spot in the side.
On Monday (February 11), with Australia teetering at 80/5 chasing 279, Carey walked in under extreme pressure both from a game-situation and a team perspective, and had no option but to deliver in order to keep the noise — surrounding his spot in the side — away. More importantly, he had to deliver in order to keep Australia’s hopes of winning the series alive.
Not many expected the left-hander to produce magic, but the 32-year-old ended up playing arguably the best knock of his international career to help the Aussies steal a stunning series win. Carey first stitched together a 140-run sixth-wicket stand with Mitchell Marsh, and then backed it up with a 61-run stand with skipper Pat Cummins to take Australia over the line.
He did not notch up a well-deserved ton, but he ended up creating history anyway, posting the second-highest score by a wicket-keeper in Test history in a successful fourth-innings chase.
The knock has put to bed all doubts over Carey’s place in the Test side, but, according to skipper Cummins, there were never any doubts in the first place.
"I think his glovework has been basically flawless since he started, and that's pretty much your main role as keeper in the side," Cummins said of Carey.
"We’ve seen it over many years in ODI cricket, in state cricket recently and some key Test innings that 'Kez' (Carey) is well and truly a matchwinner with his batting as well.
"A 98 in an away series, when scoring runs away is always harder than at home.
"It's another nod to the special career that Kez is carving out for himself."
Carey, meanwhile, asserted that he is someone who thrives under pressure, and claimed that he feels privileged to be a part of such a ‘special team’.
"I enjoy that challenge, I feel like this group's been able to get out of situations," Carey said in the aftermath of his ice-cold knock.
"I guess each guy's had a game where they've been able to do that, and so in the last seven games we've won six although at times a little bit under pressure – we've stayed resilient throughout that.
"We've got a really special bowling attack that's kept us in games and Mitchell Marsh's last 12 months, Travis Head, Steve Smith at the top of the order, (Usman) Khawaja … everyone's had their moments and it's a really special team to be playing in."
Chasing 279 is not an easy task even when your top-order batters fire, and the task turned into a mountainous one for the Aussies when their top five combined to score just 49 runs. Still, the Kangaroos ended up finding a way, with Marsh (80), Carey (98*) and Cummins (32*) playing out of their skin to take the side over the line.
The New Zealand series is the third series on the bounce in which Australia’s top-order has not fired. Across the entire home summer (five Tests), there were only two centuries from the top five, one of which came from the now-retired David Warner.
Cummins admitted that all Aussie top-order batters would ‘look back and wish they scored more runs’, but insisted that the beauty of this unit lies in their ability to ‘find a way to win’.
"No doubt a few of them will look back and wish they had scored a few more runs over the last couple of games, but basically everyone in the line-up has won a match this summer," Cummins said.
"At times we haven't played our best cricket, but still found a way to win.
"In a couple of previous summers, we'd blown teams out of the water, and this summer it wasn't the case but still at the key moments someone's stood up.
"It's similar to the ODI World Cup, you keep finding a way to win even if at times it's not fully functioning, the whole unit."
This Australian side is not overly known for its aggression with the bat, but the fourth innings saw the visitors bat at a remarkable rate of 4.32 RPO and take the game to New Zealand. The likes of Marsh, Head and Carey — aggressive batters by nature — being in the middle helped, but the overall approach in the second innings was far more proactive than any of their previous three innings in the series.
Cummins said that his side took a conscious decision to be more proactive and put more pressure on the Blackcaps bowlers.
"We've been on the flip side of that a few times, and as a captain I know it's annoying when the other team is just ticking over the scoring rate," Cummins said.
"It's something we spoke about today, just keeping that scoreboard running."
With the victory today, Australia have overtaken New Zealand in the World Test Championship points table and have moved to second spot in the table.
