On a blistering Adelaide afternoon the 3rd Ashes Test 2025 delivered a cocktail of high skill, high emotion and high controversy, with Australia riding Alex Carey’s cathartic century, a late selection twist that recalled Usman Khawaja, and Nathan Lyon’s leap up the all-time wicket charts, all while England fumed over a review that the technology company later admitted was mishandled.
Selection twists before the first ball
In the build-up Australia confirmed Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon would return for Adelaide, a timely boost for a side already two up and hunting the urn, while selectors stuck with Travis Head and Jake Weatherald at the top, which initially shut the door on veteran Usman Khawaja. Then, minutes before the toss, Steve Smith walked from the field with vertigo symptoms and the day’s narrative pivoted as Khawaja was handed an unexpected lifeline to bat at four.
Cummins, fit again and itching to play, said he felt ready to go and praised how settled the group was, a tone that matched a squad confident in its methods. He noted Lyon’s comeback after sitting out Brisbane and reaffirmed that selection remained fluid, a reminder of the ruthlessness powering Australia’s current edge.
Carey’s cathartic hundred on home soil
Carey produced a commanding 106 at Adelaide Oval, his first Ashes century and a knock layered with emotion, a performance shaped by composure in the heat and resilience under pressure. He gestured to the sky on reaching three figures, a tribute to his late father Gordon, and later spoke about the family in the stands and the surge of feeling that followed the milestone in front of a crowd of 56,298, the biggest cricket attendance at the venue.
The wicketkeeper stitched the innings together through shifting partnerships, first with Josh Inglis for 32, then with Pat Cummins for 13, and finally with Mitchell Starc, whose late assault pushed the total towards a commanding platform. In the glare and glare again of a searing South Australian day, Carey’s shot selection was assured and his temperament calm, a portrait of a player in tune with his conditions and his moment.
Archer’s hostile burst and England’s toil
Jofra Archer seized the afternoon rhythm with a burst that rattled Australia right after lunch, a fast bowler sensing his time and hitting the top of off and the top of nerves. With his first ball after the interval he removed Marnus Labuschagne for 19, two deliveries later Cameron Green followed, both caught by Brydon Carse in the arc, and suddenly the hosts were wobbling at 94 for 4 with the day’s complexion transformed.
Archer had already unsettled Jake Weatherald with pace and a well-directed bouncer, the opener top edging to wicketkeeper Jamie Smith, while Head fell next over for 10 to a sharp Zak Crawley catch off Carse. England worked hard in punishing temperatures that reached well into the thirties, a grind acknowledged by bowling coach David Saker who praised the toil and Archer’s sustained pace in a furnace of a first day.
Fortune and resolve in Australia’s middle
Australia found the breathing space that great innings require and the luck that great days often demand, as chances went down at key moments. Khawaja was dropped on five by Harry Brook at second slip and made England pay with a defiant 82, a stoic innings that steadied his team and reframed his week after he had initially been left out.
Carey survived on 52 when Carse failed to cling on to a difficult chance in the covers, then he pressed on with crisp driving and measured cuts that kept the scoreboard moving. When the keeper finally miscued a Will Jacks delivery to Jamie Smith just before stumps he left with the applause still ringing and a total that felt substantial at 326 for 8 at the close.
The review storm that ignited Adelaide
The flashpoint of day one arrived when Carey, on 72, was the subject of a caught-behind review off Josh Tongue, a moment that soon grew into the talking point of the match. Snicko’s sound appeared out of sync with the ball passing the bat, the on-field not out call stood, and Australia’s keeper continued his innings as England bristled at a ruling they felt should have gone their way.
Hours later BBG Sports, the company behind the Snicko technology, accepted responsibility for an error and said the operator had selected the incorrect stump microphone for audio processing, an admission that underscored the magnitude of the miss. England bowling coach David Saker said there had been concerns over calibration throughout the series and signalled the issue might be raised with the match officials, while Carey acknowledged he felt a slight feather yet quipped he was clearly not a walker.
Starc’s late surge and Archer’s five
Day two opened with Australia on 326 for 8 and it quickly turned into a bonus session for the hosts, as Starc unfurled five boundaries to reach 54 and push the total beyond 350. The tail wagged further when Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland eked out a 23-run stand, runs that aggravated England’s morning and burnished Carey’s platform before Archer ended the innings.
Archer collected richly deserved figures of 5 for 53, a return that validated his stamina and menace across two sweltering days. It was an effort built on speed and accuracy, a sustained spell that gave England belief even as the scoreboard ticked away from them.
Lyon’s milestone in lights
Once England’s reply began it took only an over for Nathan Lyon to seize the spotlight, a classical off spinner summoning flight and drop to strike twice and leap into cricket’s rare air. When he bowled Ben Duckett to claim wicket number 564 he moved past Glenn McGrath into sixth on the all-time list, a landmark that reflects longevity, craft and the relentless patience that has defined his career.
Lyon accounted for Ollie Pope in the same opening over and with that the names ahead of him became both familiar and formidable, Stuart Broad at 604 followed by Anil Kumble at 619, then the summit of Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Jimmy Anderson. He has spoken of feeling in some of the best form of his life and of benefitting from a focus on red ball cricket since 2019, a combination that continues to stretch his legacy across Australian summers.
What it means for the series
Australia began this Test two up after emphatic eight wicket wins in Perth and Brisbane, and they will retain the Ashes with a win or a draw in Adelaide. That context sharpened every passage of play, from Archer’s surges to Carey’s resolve, and it added weight to Lyon’s early breakthroughs that had the stands humming with anticipation.
Both teams wore black armbands and observed a moment of silence for the victims of the Bondi Beach mass shooting, a solemn scene that framed the contest with perspective and poignancy. In a rivalry that often boils, there was space for stillness and respect, a reminder of sport’s place amid wider grief.
Key takeaways from Adelaide so far
- Carey’s hundred shaped the match narrative and steadied Australia after an Archer-fuelled wobble,
- the Snicko error on Carey at 72 became the controversy of the series and may prompt formal conversations with officials,
- and Lyon’s leap past McGrath into sixth all time gave the Adelaide crowd a milestone to savour.
Khawaja’s reprieve and response
Few storylines turned as sharply as Usman Khawaja’s, from being left out as an opener to being summoned into the middle order when Smith withdrew. He responded with a composed 82 that absorbed pressure and gave Australia the means to rebuild, a reminder of his versatility at the top and in the middle, and of the selectors’ belief in his enduring class.
Cummins said selection would remain week to week and that Khawaja’s ability to score in different roles was among his strengths, a point proven under Adelaide’s bright lights. For a player approaching another birthday, this was a timely answer, practical and quietly forceful.
England’s perspective and the road ahead
From England’s vantage point the ledger shows effort, skill and frustration, a combination epitomised by Archer’s five wicket haul and the review that got away. Saker lauded the work rate in the heat and hinted at follow-up regarding the technology, a sign that the conversation will continue even as the cricket moves on.
Ben Stokes and his side face an uphill task in the series and they know the margins in Adelaide are thin, the kind that swing on a dropped catch, a feather behind the bat, or a burst of high class spin. Their best path remains the simplest one, take every chance, sustain the pressure, and trust that the game will give back what it can take away.
The human pulse of an Ashes classic
Carey’s century resonated because of what it represented, a son’s salute to a father and a hometown affirmation of his place in this team. It was also a reminder that reputations follow cricketers, as Carey himself noted when he referred to the heroes and villains that sport creates, an echo of the 2023 Ashes flashpoint that made him a pantomime antagonist in England.
In Adelaide he was the home favourite and the soundtrack was warmth rather than scorn, the applause stretching long after he raised his bat. This is the Ashes at its richest, performances carried by skill and threaded through with memory, where every act lives next to what came before.
What comes next
Cricket Australia said Smith is expected to be available for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, a reassuring note after a dramatic withdrawal that reshaped this match. If he returns he will rejoin a side that Cummins describes as settled and happy, led by a captain who says he is firing on all cylinders and raring to go.
Adelaide has already served a feast, Carey’s century, Archer’s five, and Lyon’s historic strike, with the pitch and the heat still part of the equation. However the rest unfolds, this has become the defining chapter of the series to date, a study in resilience, precision and the fine line between fortune and fate.
It looked a bit funny on the replay, said Carey of the review, and England’s David Saker added that the calibration of the Snicko was out, a one two that captured the tension between technology and trust in a modern Ashes furnace.
Scoreboard snapshot and context
Australia’s first innings closed at 371 after the lower order squeezed another 45 runs on day two, a contribution that could loom large across a long game. Starc’s 54 was brisk and bruising, Archer’s 5 for 53 was a reward for persistence, and Lyon’s 9 capped a tail that refused to yield quickly.
Beyond the numbers the match has been shaped by heat, hustle and human moments, from black armbands and silences to squinting faces and clenched jaws in the field. It is the Ashes distilled, a rivalry that finds an edge in every over and meaning in every minute.
