Alex Carey went on to score his maiden Ashes century.
A major technology error during the 3rd Ashes 2025 Test at the Adelaide Oval led to England having a lost review reinstated after an appeal involving Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey. The incident took place in the 63rd over when Josh Tongue was bowling to Carey, who was batting on 72 at the time.
Tongue delivered a ball that appeared to brush Carey’s bat before being cleanly taken by wicketkeeper Jamie Smith. England made a confident appeal for caught behind and decided to go for a review. However, the Snickometer showed confusing results. There was no spike when the ball passed close to the bat, but a big spike appeared when the ball was nowhere near the willow. Due to this mismatch between the sound and visuals, third umpire Chris Gaffaney asked the on field umpire to stay with his original not out decision.
Later in the match, Carey admitted that he had edged the ball. This brought fresh focus on the decision, especially after BBG, the company responsible for providing the Snicko system, accepted that a technical mistake had taken place. BBG explained that the error occurred because the wrong stump microphone was selected for audio processing.
“Given that Alex Carey admitted he had hit the ball in question, the only conclusion that can be drawn from this, is that the Snicko operator at the time must have selected the incorrect stump mic for audio processing,” BBG told BBC Sport.
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At the end of play on day one, England head coach Brendon McCullum and team manager Wayne Bentley raised the issue with match referee Jeff Crowe. After reviewing the incident, Crowe confirmed that England would receive their lost review back for Australia’s first innings. This decision made sure England were not unfairly affected by a problem with the technology instead of a mistake by the players or umpires.
The decision turned out to be expensive for England. Carey survived on 72 and then went on to score 106, playing a key role in taking Australia to a solid total.
Australia resumed day two on 326 for 8 and were eventually bowled out for 371. Along with Carey’s century, Usman Khawaja contributed 82 at the top of the order, while Mitchell Starc added a valuable 54 from the lower middle order. For England, Jofra Archer was the standout bowler, as he finished the innings with five wickets. Brydon Carse and Will Jacks picked two wickets each, while Josh Tongue claimed one.
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