Australia’s Alex Carey on Saturday insisted he wouldn’t mind an encore of his controversial dismissal of Jonny Bairstow should the opportunity arise again in the remainder of the 2023 Ashes.
Australian wicketkeeper Carey had stirred up the hornet’s nest during the second Test at Lord’s by stumping English counterpart Bairstow after the latter had left his crease to have a chat with non-striker and skipper Ben Stokes during the home team’s chase of 371.
“I definitely would,” Carey said on Saturday.
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He has been bemused by the reaction to him throwing down the stumps after Bairstow wandered out of his crease without checking if the ball was dead. It caused unprecedented scenes of uproar in the Lord’s Test two weeks ago.
England was chasing on the last morning. After the incident, the crowd accused Australia of cheating. The Australians were abused in the Long Room by Marylebone Cricket Club members. The club apologised. The MCC, which owns Lord’s and curates the laws of cricket, added Carey was in the right.
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But England claimed Australia broke the unwritten ‘spirit of cricket,’ prompting each country’s prime minister to back their teams. Carey and the Australians continued to draw abuse from the crowd last week in Leeds, where England won to trim the visitors’ lead to 2-1.
“There’s been some nasty stuff been said but it is the Ashes, and there was nasty stuff said before that as well,” Carey said. “I feel really well supported, I think the whole group does.
“From our point of view, we’ve all got each other’s backs and we’ve all supported each other. We understand what’s important and who matters.”
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The Ashes moves to Old Trafford from Wednesday and Carey said he wouldn’t hesitate to re-enact the stumping.
Carey explained he acted on impulse to have a shy at the stumps when he collected the ball after Bairstow ducked a Cameron Green bouncer and idly walked away.
“We were switched on to the fact that it was a bouncer plan and it felt like Jonny was pretty switched on to getting out of the way, he wasn’t playing any shots,” Carey said.
“When he ducked, his first movement was pretty much out of his crease, so instinctively I grabbed the ball, threw the stumps down and the rest is history.
“Once the bail has come off, it’s up to the third umpire to deem it out or not out, or the on-field umpires . . . and it was given out. To see how much it has played out since then has been a little bit surprising.”
With inputs from AP
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