Carey strengthens claims as Test keeper-in-waiting

Alex Carey's classy hundred against an equally top-shelf New South Wales attack has further strengthened his claim to be Australia's next Test keeper-in-waiting.

Carey's 125 from 214 balls has put South Australia in the driver's seat after two days of their Marsh Sheffield Shield match against the Blues, who resume tomorrow 4-177 and still more than 300 runs in arrears.

The former Australia ODI vice-captain believes he's currently enjoying the best batting form of a first-class career that began late due to his dalliance with Australian rules football in his younger days, and is making the most of an unscheduled run of Shield games with the Redbacks.

The 29-year-old was supposed to be in South Africa having been named for his maiden Test tour before the series against the Proteas was postponed over COVID-19 concerns, and while he was disappointed to miss that opportunity he's heartened by being named as Paine's understudy in that expanded squad.

 

"I was really excited, and then disappointed the tour was cancelled," Carey said today after top-scoring in SA's first innings of 8(dec)-482.

"Not the fact that it shouldn't have been cancelled, but more because it was my first Test tour and it would have been a great experience to get over there and be around that Test group.

"I've never sat in a Test change-room before, so I was excited to do that and to be around some world-class cricketers at the highest level.

"I suppose it is (the best form of career to date), if you go back over the last maybe 15 first-class games.

"If anything I'm probably disappointed I didn't make a bigger score today and bat longer, but at the moment I feel confident and I guess my numbers are starting to show that over the past 18 to 24 months."

A feature of the left-hander's innings against the Test-strength Blues' line-up was his driving through the off-side, and it was fitting he reached his hundred (having resumed this morning on 89) with a punch to the extra-cover rope off Australia teammate Josh Hazlewood.

It came an over after he had launched Nathan Lyon down the ground for six as Carey and Jake Lehmann (80 off 85 balls) plundered a seventh-wicket partnership of 88 off 104 balls.

Carey's century was his first in Shield ranks at Adelaide Oval, and his fourth since earning his Australia cap in an ODI as a late call-up to replace an ill Paine against England at the Gabba in January, 2018.

Since then, no other keeper-batter in Shield cricket has reached triple-figures that often and only former Test gloveman Matthew Wade (66.36) has averaged more with the bat than Carey's 54.17 having appeared in multiple Shield games.

 

Carey's all-round capabilities are also underscored by his recent efforts in T20 cricket where he finished KFC BBL|10 as eighth-highest run-scorer (and one of only two century makers for the tournament), and in the 50-over game where he cracked 99 from 114 balls in last Thursday's Marsh Cup fixture against NSW.

Paine will turn 37 during next summer's Ashes campaign, with his predecessor Brad Haddin (who played the last of his 66 Tests in 2015 aged 37 years and 261 days) the only Australia keeper in the past 60 years to play on past his 37th birthday.

"I don't … look too far ahead, that (next Test opportunity) is probably next summer, so I guess for now it's these two (remaining Shield) and then see what happens in the winter," Carey said.

"I haven't really got my winter mapped out yet, I'll probably take a bit of time off.

"No IPL this year which is probably good and bad, so I'm looking forward to spending some time at home with the family.

"(But county cricket) is something to consider at the moment, I'll speak to my wife (Eloise) and to a few guys once they get over there to see what it looks like in England with the (COVID) situation.

"Its certainly something at looking at, to play more cricket over there in first-class conditions."

If Carey needed any reminder of how fleeting Test opportunities can be, he only had to look at Kurtis Patterson who remains unbeaten on 86 in NSW's first innings and resumes Monday morning eyeing a drought-breaking hundred.

Patterson's knock is his highest Shield score since posting 134 against Western Australia at Bankstown in 2019, just weeks after his maiden Test century in just his second appearance, an innings that sees him hold a Test batting average of 144.

The only other occasion he's got close to triple figures since his triumphant ascension to Test cricket – before missing out on a berth in Australia's 2019 Ashes squad when Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft returned - was an unbeaten 94 for Australia A against England A a year ago.

But in reaching 50 for the first time this Shield season, Patterson provided a reminder of how elegantly effortless he can appear when in full flow.

He might have been run out for 78 after his skipper Peter Nevill bunted to short cover and hared off for single, but Harry Nielsen's throw at the striker's end stumps went wide as Patterson stretched to make his ground.

The Blues pair have so far added 62 for the fifth-wicket, and remain crucial to the heavyweights' hopes of closing in on SA's total in which six of their top eight batters reached 50.

The fact that Hazlewood (3-77) was the only member of the Blues' four-pronged pace attack to claim a wicket also highlighted the lack of assistance the NSW seamers found from the dry Adelaide surface.

And Mitchell Starc's return of 0-91 from 21 overs as he struggled for rhythm in his first game back from bereavement leave represented the first time in his stellar career he has gone wicketless having bowled more than 20 overs in the first innings of a Shield game.

Having declared his team's innings closed after Chadd Sayers reached his third first-class half century, which included an audacious pull for six off Hazlewood, skipper Travis Head was delighted when Warner was the first wicket to fall having scored 24 from 33 balls.

The Test opener had struck four boundaries and looked to be timing the ball sweetly having posted an unbeaten 87 in NSW's successful run chase in the preceding Marsh One Day Cup fixture at Adelaide Oval last Thursday.

But in attempting to withdraw his bat from a Daniel Worrall delivery angled into him from around the wicket and which bounced more than the opener expected, it glanced the toe of Warner's blade on the way through to Carey.

Every time NSW looked like forging a partnership of substance, the Redbacks found a way of conjuring a wicket.

Warner's opening partner Nick Larkin (20) slashed a short ball that was smartly caught at gully, Moises Henriques (6) fell in similar fashion punching a back-foot drive to point, and Daniel Solway nicked off after striking consecutive boundaries off seamer David Grant.

With the dry Adelaide Oval pitch tipped to offer even greater purchase on the final days, SA's Joe Medew-Ewen looms as an unlikely trump card in his first-class debut despite returning 0-37 from his first nine overs in top-level cricket.

The 23-year-old appeared undaunted when brought into the attack soon after Warner's dismissal today, and landed his left-arm leg breaks regularly with a whippy action and bustling run-up not dissimilar to ex-Australia batter and occasional tweaker Simon Katich.