The Ashes second Test day 2 recap: The whipping boy who became England’s unlikeliest of game-changers

Brisbane: For most of Friday, Brydon Carse’s bowling could have been summed up by the ditty the Barmy Army penned for Mitchell Johnson during the 2010/11 Ashes.

“He bowls to the left, he bowls to the right, that Mitchell Johnson, his bowling is ...” . You get the picture.

Just as it appeared England were heading to the point of no return, Carse turned from whipping boy to England’s unlikeliest deliverers of hope.

As far as plot twists go, they do not come more bizarre than Carse hoodwinking Cameron Green and Steve Smith with a bumper barrage, the latter falling to a one-handed screamer from Will Jacks.

Up until his third spell, Carse’s pitch map resembled a scatter plot to match a scatter gun approach.

He was the worst in an attack that was compared unfavourably to third-grade level by Mark Waugh, labelled “horrific” by Matthew Hayden and lacking “sharpness in the brain” by England great Stuart Broad, who was one of the more restrained critics of the visitors’ meltdown in Perth.

A grade cricketer would have fancied themselves to better his figures at that point of 1/78 from 11 overs. His teammates, with the exception of Jofra Archer and an honourable mention to Gus Atkinson, fared little better.

Stokes started shoddily with a rank full toss but fought back late after much of the damage had been done.

Captains need bowlers to have control to set a field. Unable to group enough balls in the same areas bowling conventionally, Carse was sent on a bumper barrage with five boundary riders – two behind square, one in front of square, a fly slip and a deep third – as protection.

With their cues in place, Smith and Green took on the short stuff, plundering 17 runs from Carse’s first over of bumpers.

Switched to the other end, Carse opened up with a bouncer that sailed so well above Green, who stands at 198 centimetres, it was called a wide. Anticipating an eighth short ball in a row, Green backed away early again only to be tossed a fullish delivery that he was in no position to play and was bowled. Three balls later, Smith pulled Carse awkwardly but could not clear Jacks’s right hand.

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“I think they may have been lulled into a false sense of security,” Waugh said on Kayo Sports.

Suddenly, Australia had gone from having two players set to bat out the night to a pair of fresh batters needing to get themselves in under lights.

Having dropped the ball metaphorically the day before, England did it again – this time literally.

Out for a golden duck on the first day, Ben Duckett gave Alex Carey a life first ball, putting down a simple diving chance. He then grassed Josh Inglis at gully for his second mistake in the session. Carse’s drop was even worse.

Arguably, the most costly of the four misses came early in Australia’s innings when England needed to set the tone with the new ball only to kickstart the hosts.

Having worked over Travis Head, Archer finally found the freshly cast opener’s outside edge but Jamie Smith was beaten for pace and failed to glove the ball. Head had taken 26 balls to score his first three runs. His next 30 came off 17 deliveries.

The three lives cost England 87 runs. Australia’s lead is 44.

Their errors again raised questions over England’s preparation and their refusal to commit more players to a pink-ball practice game against the PM’s XI in Canberra. Smith and Carse are both playing their first day/night Test.

England batting great Joe Root defended the side’s five-day lead-up in Brisbane, which included two sessions under lights, but conceded the pink ball is more difficult to see at night.

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“It’s certainly different to a white ball under lights. We get a huge amount of exposure to that in T20 and ODI cricket,” Root said.

“It is different. We worked as hard as we could in the lead up. We had five days of prep and a huge amount of catching and making sure the two days under lights we utilised that well. Sometimes they just don’t stick.”

Carse had impressed with his accuracy in the controlled conditions of the nets, but was wayward when the Australians applied the pressure. Former England captain Michael Vaughan said there was no replica for match conditions.

“How do you concentrate for two, three, four hours by netting for 30 minutes?” Vaughan, a commentator for Kayo Sports, told this masthead.

“How do you expect to be able to bowl consistently and hit the top of off when required when there are no consequences in the nets?”

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