The Australian team defeated England badly in the second ODI played at Headingley ground. With this, it took a 2-0 lead in the 5-match ODI series. Alex Carey was the biggest hero of Australia's victory. He was also named Player of the Match. Carey is the same player whose life was made difficult by England fans during the 2023 Ashes due to the controversial stumping of Jonny Bairstow at Headingley. A lot of bad things were said about his family and he was teased a lot during the series. 14 months after this incident, Carey again landed on the Headingley ground. This time he was welcomed like last year. However, this wicketkeeper batsman of Australia gave a befitting reply to the fans of England with his tremendous performance.
The last time Alex Carey came out to bat at Headingley was during the 2023 Ashes series. Then he could score only 8 runs in one innings and 5 runs in the second innings. After his controversial stumping, England fans made fun of him after seeing him out early. This time too, when he came out to bat, he was welcomed with taunts. However, whatever was left in the Ashes, Alex Carey completed it this time. He responded with both bat and mouth. First, he played a match-winning innings of 74 runs in 67 balls.
Then when he became the Player of the Match, he said during the interview that he was aware of this earlier and this time he came fully prepared. Once the innings started, he focused on batting. This has now become a regular thing for him. Recently, in an interview, he also said about the teasing of England fans that the 'personal attack' on his family was not right.
In July 2023, during the second Test of the Ashes series, Alex Carey dismissed Bairstow for just 10 runs. Then the England team was chasing a target of 371 runs. He did this stumping when Bairstow got out of the dead crease. According to the rules of cricket, this stumping was legitimate and he was given out. However, England fans believed that this was not an out. Also, stumping is not legitimate in terms of sportsmanship. Bairstow's dismissal changed the course of the match as well as the entire series. Australia won this match at Headingley by 43 runs. At the same time, by winning the next match, they also equalized the series 2-2.
Alex Carey was not a part of Australia's ODI team for almost 1 year. Before the England series, he played his last ODI against India in October 2023. Carey played his last match for Australia during the New Zealand Test series in March 2024. That is, he was not even a part of the team for 6 months. Now he got a chance and Carey put a win in Australia's bag as soon as he came. When he came out to bat at Headingley, his team was struggling after losing 5 wickets for 151. Even after this, the sequence of wickets continued.
The team had lost 9 wickets at a score of 221 runs. In such a situation, it seemed difficult to reach even a score of 250. Then Carey made an important partnership of 49 runs for the 10th wicket with Josh Hazlewood. Hazlewood scored only 4 runs in this. Due to this partnership, the Australian team managed to score 270 runs. Later, Mitchell Starc and other bowlers wreaked havoc on the England batsmen and bowled them out for 202 runs and won the match by 68 runs. Carey played an innings of 74 runs in 67 balls. It was because of his innings that Australia managed to win.
