Ashes 2023: James Anderson rips through Alex Carey's defence to claim 1100th first-class wicket

England and Australia continued their see-saw battle in the first Ashes Test on Day 3 as Australia resumed their innings on 311/5 with Usman Khawaja (126*) and Alex Carey (52*) at the crease. The duo continued their 91-run stand and added quick runs early in the day to reduce the remaining 82-run deficit. Carey looked in fine form as he drove James Anderson for consecutive boundaries and moved into the 60s.

However, the veteran seamer made an incredible comeback as he bowled an inswinger from around the wicket which managed to breach the defence of the Carey and crashed into his stumps. With this dismissal, Anderson completed 1100 wickets in first-class cricket and added another feather to his illustrious cap. Carey also became Anderson’s 685^th Test victim making the legendary seamer just 15 wickets away from completing 700 wickets.

Watch the dismissal here:

Khawaja and Carey added 118 runs for the sixth wicket and bailed their team out of trouble when they were reeling at 220/5 on Day 2. Following his dismissal, Pat Cummins got together with Khawaja and the duo added 34 runs for the seventh wicket. 

However, things slowed down in the middle as both batters failed to get on with the scoring due to a tight-field set up by England captain Ben Stokes. The pressure finally resulted in Khawaja’s wicket, whose 141-run innings came to an end as he tried to find a gap through the packed field and lost his stumps.

After getting the main man, the English seamers came at the Aussie tail with a barrage of bouncers and didn’t take much time to wrap up the innings with Nathan Lyon (1), Scott Boland (0) and Cummins (38) falling prey to the plan. Australia finished their innings on 383, trailing by seven runs. Stuart Broad (3/68) and Ollie Robinson (3/55) were the pick of the bowlers for the hosts. The Test is evenly poised after the end of the first innings and both teams will battle it out to seal the game in the second innings.