Watch, The Ashes | Alex Carey has rub of green after technical gaffe extends his stay in Adelaide

‌Australia were slightly ahead of England at the end of the first day’s play in the third Ashes Test in Adelaide on Wednesday. The home side finished at 326/8 in 83 overs courtesy of crucial knocks from Alex Carey and Usman Khawaja. Carey top-scored for the side with a knock of 106, which included eight fours and a six, while Khawaja, who replaced an unwell Steve Smith, hit 10 fours during his 126-ball 82. The pair took the side out of a tricky 94/4 and rebuilt the innings with a fifth-wicket partnership of 91 to take the Aussies on level terms.

But the wicketkeeper-batter needed a tinge of luck as well to reach his third century in Tests, in front of his home crowd, at Adelaide Oval. The southpaw, while trying to cut a short of a length delivery outside off stump, underedged pacer Josh Tongue in the first ball of the 63rd over when he was on 72.

Just as Jamie Smith completed a low catch, the England players went straight up as they heard a noise as the ball passed the willow. But umpire Ahsan Raza was unmoved as he dismissed the shouts with a shake of his head.

However, skipper Ben Stokes went for the review, but what followed shook the cricketing world as the Real Time Snickometer gave a blunderous output. Replays showed a spike even before the ball passed Carey, with the TV umpire concluding it as a different sound. He stood by the on-field umpire’s call, ruling that there was a clear gap when the ball passed the willow, as the England players looked on in disbelief.

But with Carey agreeing hesitantly to a faint nick in the press conference after the day, the technology provider admitted that there was a flaw as they selected the incorrect stump mic for processing the audio. After the incident, the batter added 34 more runs to his tally before being dismissed by Will Jacks towards the end of the day.

Controversial!