Heady days as Adelaide's favourite sons make history

PL watches Travis Head

Australia is 4-271, a lead of 371 runs with two days to play. Travis Head 142no and Alex Carey 52no will continue tomorrow.

At exactly 4.30 pm local time, Travis Head lofted Joe Root over his head, and the whole of Adelaide breathed again. The local lad had done it. Again. A century in front of his home crowd. His fourth consecutive century on a wicket he loves so much he got down on his knees and gave it a kiss.

He’d been dropped on 99 at gully, and he’d advanced so slowly through the 90s it seemed he was taking the pith, but he got there in the end, much to the relief of the 50-odd thousand cricket fans who’d taken up every vantage point to see him reach this milestone.

Head, who’d winded England in Perth, had knocked them to the canvas. Nothing can save England.

It seems only fitting that the best Test match city in Australia, if not the world, should bring out the best in its hometown heroes. And only natural that there’d be a little jostling for best in show. Alex Carey’s century in the first innings set the game up. Watched by his recently widowed mother, siblings and children, it was redolent with emotion for a player who radiates family values. That one was for you. Dad.

Nathan Lyon is not a free settler and was born in rural NSW, but the local cricket community lay claim to the off-spinner who was “discovered” while playing at the Prospect Cricket Club and jobbing as a groundsman at Adelaide Oval. Lyon’s work in this match is far from complete, but taking two wickets in your first over is a spectacular re-entry to the place where it all started.

And, there in the wings, waiting his moment, was the city’s bogan cult hero, Travis Hold My Beer Head.

Adelaide and Trav’s coupling has been extraordinarily productive.

Head has scored centuries in his last three Test matches at the venue.

Here, in his comfort zone, he averages over 80 compared to a career average of 42.

Thomas Miles’ detail

And, he was around that mark when his rival for affections, Carey, joined him at the wicket on the third day. If any member had not been lured from the champagne tents out the back before this, they were now. There was a crowd five to six deep on the members’ concourse as Head made progress toward a storied milestone. In front of the Sir Edwin Smith stand, they were forced to kneel in order not to block those behind them. The hill too, perhaps more of a spiritual home than the well-heeled areas, was jammed so tight you wondered how people got arms free to drink.