Melbourne: Alex Carey's maiden Test century put South Africa on the mat as Australia declared their first innings with a stupendous lead of 386 on Day 3 of the Boxing Day match at MCG on Wednesday.
South Africa are staring at a possible innings defeat to rubber-stamp their series loss as they finished the day at 15/1 in their second innings, trailing Australia by 371 runs.
The visitors lost captain Dean Elgar for a duck, but Theunis de Bruyn and Sarel Erwee managed to pull through under tough batting conditions, before rain saved the day.
The day's honour was hogged by Carey, who rose to the occasion and played a brilliant knock of 111, becoming the only the second Australian keeper after Rodney Marsh to score a Boxing Day Test century.
Carey was impeccable with his shots and he was especially a delight to watch smoking a hat-trick of boundaries off Lungi Ngidi. He also reverse-swept spinner Keshav Maharaja, while smoking short-pitched balls by executing pulls and upper-cuts.
Ultimately, the wicketkeeper-batsman was dismissed for 111 after playing a half-hearted shot only to give Marco Jansen a simple return catch.
Carey found support from Cameron Green (51 no), who came out to bat despite a minor fracture on his right index finger.
The day started with Travis Head (51) reaching his fifty, before Anrich Nortje dismissed him and David Warner (200) with back-to-back yorkers.
South Africa were made to grind, before Australia declared three minutes before Tea with a score of 575/8.
Brief scores: South Africa 189 & 15/1 (Pat Cummins 1-0) trail Australia 575/8 decl. (David Warner 200, Alex Carey 111; Anrich Nortje 3-92) by 371 runs. (UNI)
