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You can almost pinpoint the moment Alex Carey’s cricketing life flashed before his eyes.
After being dropped after one game of the ODI World Cup, the wicketkeeper is the forgotten man of the Australian Test side but very nearly repeated a version of his infamous Jonny Bairstow stumping.
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On Day 2 of the first Test against Pakistan, Australia posted an imposing first innings total of 487, but Pakistan’s openers dug in for the fight — leaving the Aussies desperate for the first wicket.
Nathan Lyon was tightening things up when Abdullah Shafique defended a delivery to Marnus Labuschagne at short leg.
Labuschagne quickly flicked the ball to Carey, who noticed Shafique’s back foot wasn’t in his crease and he leant forward with one glove for the stumping.
The only problem was Carey was so gentle he didn’t dislodged the bails and replays showed Shafique would have been out.
Carey told his Australian teammates: “It touched the stump. I hit stump.”
David Warner can he heard saying: “That’s out.”
Isa Guha said on Fox Cricket: “Oh he touched the stump but the bail didn’t move. The bail didn’t come out of the groove.
“There was a moment where Shafiq had his foot up in the air.”
Pakistan great Wasim Akram said: “I think it was in the air at the time he hit the stump.”
Shafique had completed his defensive shot and was creeping back to his crease, so we wonder if Carey decided it was perhaps in his best interest not to attempt a stumping in cricket’s murky grey area.
Guha said: “He needed to get a bit more force behind it Gilly.”
Adam Gilchrist quipped: “Oh do we need to go into this area again with Alex Carey? Player not attempting a run, all that sort of stuff.
“Nah I think that would have been fair game. Swift bit of work by Marnus at short leg.”
Sports broadcaster David Lithgow tweeted: “Alex Carey absolutely spooked to take off the bails then. Unreal. Sort of understand. But brother hold your ground and take off the bails.”
Australia didn’t have to wait too much longer to break the opening partnership, with Lyon claiming his 497th Test wicket when Shafique danced down the pitch and flicked the ball to Warner at leg slip.
Former cricket umpire Simon Taufel explained on Channel 7 that Shafique would have indeed been out if Carey had executed the stumping.
“You do not need to be attempting a run to be run out,” Taufel said.
“So let’s just put that out there for people to understand.
“The law was changed about six years ago to provide some special protection to a batter to prevent them from being run out from accidental loss of contact once they had with the ground.
“That protection is only afforded when they’re running or diving back into their crease. That was not the case here.
“So if that foot was in the air when the bail is taken off by Alex Carey in that situation right there, then the batter is run out.”
James Brayshaw added: “That is the last thing Alex Carey needs, is that going around the world and people trying to ping him again for doing something inappropriate.”
Originally published as ‘Hit the stumps’: Alex Carey misses stumping, ‘spooked’ in bizarre moment
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