Australia have set India a record 444 runs to win the final if the ICC World Test Championship at The Oval with little over four sessions remaining in the contest. The first time finalists declared their second innings at 270/8 after the dismissal of captain Pat Cummins with Alex Caret remaining unbeaten on 66.
Having stretched their lead to 374 runs at the lunch break, Australia batted for 14.3 overs in the second session and upped the scoring rate to add 69 runs to their total before declaring.
Carey, who missed out on a fifty by two runs in the first innings, got to the milestone on the fourth day’s play helping extend Australia’s domination as they took another step towards potentially winning their first ever WTC title.
India will have to break the record for the highest run chase in Test history if they want to lift the mace but on this pitch which has progressively become challenging for the batters thanks to variable bounce it will take an extraordinary effort to do so.
For the record, West Indies hold the current record for the highest run-chase in Test history having chased down 418 against Australia in 2003.
Carey struck eight fours during his innings and added 93 run for the seventh wicket with Mitchell Starc who played a good hand, scoring 41 off 57 with the help of seven fours.
The pair added to India’s frustration as they were hoping to wrap up the Australian innings to limit the lead to manageable level.
The partnership was finally broken when Mohammed Shami drew an edge from Starc and Virat Kohli at first slip took a good catch.
Shami then took his second wicket 10 runs later when Cummins holed out to Axar Patel (substitute) at covers on five and with that, declared the innings.
Jadeja was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with 3/58 from 23 overs that included the scalps of Steve Smith, Travis Head and Cameron Green.