England are still alive in T20 series against India says Brydon Carse
The tourists lost again on Saturday.
Brydon Carse insisted England are not down and out against India despite falling 2-0 down in the five-match T20 series.
England were thrashed in Kolkata earlier this week but put up much more of a fight in Chennai, with Jos Buttler’s 45 off 30 balls plus cameos by T20 debutant Jamie Smith (22 off 12) and Carse (31 off 17) underpinning their total of 165 for nine.
Carse then collected three for 29 as England’s battery of quicks reduced India to 146 for eight but Tilak Varma’s assured 72 off 55 deliveries sealed a two wicket-win for the hosts in the final over.
England have no room for manoeuvre if they are to give Brendon McCullum a winning start to life as all-format head coach but Carse remains bullish and believes there is more to come from the tourists.
When asked whether he still feels England can win the remaining three matches and the series, Carse said: “Yeah, of course, 100 per cent.
“It’s pretty evident that the performance was a lot better than the other night but we haven’t put a complete performance in. It’s quite exciting to see where we can get to over these next few games.
“I felt like we got a decent score on the board and we kept on taking wickets throughout the game.
“Credit goes to Tilak, he played a very mature and smart innings and ultimately he was the difference in their side.”
While Carse excelled in his first appearance of the series after replacing Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer endured an evening to forget as he recorded his worst figures in a T20 international of 4-0-60-1.
Having bemoaned his bad fortune when he was by far England’s best bowler at Eden Gardens on Wednesday, Archer had little luck, with Varma twice top-edging over wicketkeeper Phil Salt’s head for six.
There was more than one instance of Archer drawing a false shot only for the ball to land safe and compounding his night was him running out Carse, who looked set to lead England to a bigger total.
But Carse, who alongside Archer, Mark Wood and Jamie Overton all operate at high pace, bears no grudges.
Carse said: “It’s always frustrating to get run out, but those things happen. There was a little bit of miscommunication from both of us. I’ve spoken to Jof, and he’s fine and the game goes on.
“A couple of nights ago Jofra had an amazing spell up front. I still think he bowled pretty well here. It was pretty unfortunate. There were a lot of runs over the keeper’s head and I suppose that sometimes happens when you bowl 90mph.”
All five of Varma’s sixes were behind square as he used England’s pace against them on a wicket with spongy bounce, while the last of his four fours laced through the covers off Overton got India over the line with four balls to spare in a nail-biting finale.
England almost got to a defendable score as India’s seamers topped and tailed the innings and their spinners were on uninterrupted from the start of the first to the end of the 17th over.
Varun Chakravarthy produced a moment of magic to clean up Harry Brook for the second T20 in a row but while India’s spinners took six wickets, England belted eight of their nine sixes off the slow bowlers.
Buttler, who bludgeoned three of them himself, revealed he is unfussed about the possibility of losing wickets as long as they are taking the attack to India, who used five spinners in total.
He said: “India are always going to take wickets with their spinners but if we take them for runs, I am happy.”
