England pacer Brydon Carse who replaced Gus Atkinson and delivered with three wickets defended his teammate Jofra Archer for conceding 60 runs in second T20I against India. Carse feels that Archer was "unfortunate" as he got a lot of bounce and the ball went over wicketkeeper Phil Salt's head for a boundary. He pointed out that Archer bowled an amazing spell in the first T20I at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
"A couple of nights ago, Jofra had an amazing spell up front. I still think he bowled pretty well tonight. He was pretty unfortunate. I don't know the exact number, but a lot of runs (were scored) over the keeper's head behind square," said Carse in the post-match presentation
"I suppose that sometimes happens, you know, when you bowl 90 mile an hour."
Tilak Varma was not afraid to take on Archer and smashed his 150.3kmph delivery for a six over fine leg. He was not potent at the death and conceded 19 runs which took the game away from England. This is Archer's most expensive spell in the format whether in international, domestic or franchise cricket. His only wicket was Sanju Samson who struggled against his pace. Archer's spell is also the joint fourth-most expensive spell against India in T20Is.
Carse on England's batting so far
Carse also defended England batters who are yet to bring their best self to the fore. They have lost wickets at regular intervals and unable to post a threatening total on the board.
"I felt like we got a decent score on the board towards the end. We kept on taking wickets throughout the game. But, you know, credit goes to Tilak and I think he played a very mature, smart innings and ultimately he was the difference," said the 29-year-old.
Carse also backed England's aggressive approach from the word go. However, he feels there is room to improve.
"I think we're always going to try and take the game on in the power play, whether that's with bat and ball. But there's probably always room to improve. But I think we're always going to take that aggressive approach," he said.
Carse's victims in Chennai
While Adil Rashid was economical conceding just 14 runs from four overs, Carse came in as first-change bowler and got the wicket of skipper Suryakumar Yadav and Dhruv Jurel in consecutive overs. In the 14th over, he broke the sixth-wicket partnership with Washington Sundar's wicket.
India lead the five-T20I series 2-0. The two teams will lock horns again on January 28 at Niranjan Shah, Rajkot.