2 weeks ago
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PERTH, Australia :England pace bowler Brydon Carse echoed the thoughts of cricket fans around the world on Friday when he described the astonishing 19-wicket opening day of the Ashes series as "awesome".
Australia were initially revelling in their early success as seven wickets for Mitchell Starc helped them dismiss the tourists for 172, only for England's five-man pace attack to hit back and leave Australia on 123-9 at the close.
"What a day. Everyone who came to watch got value for money with 19 wickets. It was brilliant. The atmosphere was electric; the energy right through the day was awesome," said Carse, who dismissed Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith in a fiery spell.
"Fantastic last session from everyone and it’s put us in a good position going into tomorrow."
England's tail collapsed from 160-6 to 172 all out in three overs of ragged batting but did not allow their spirits to fall in front of a raucous crowd buoyed by about 10,000 visiting fans.
"Stokesy (captain Ben Stokes) kept it really simple and just told the bowlers to give everything," Carse said of how they approached the Australian innings. "He said: 'Let's smash the wicket hard and see how much we can get out of the wicket.'
"I thought the way Gus Atkinson and Jofra (Archer) started was phenomenal. Then I thought we carried that into the afternoon session and we were quite relentless through the evening and Ben rotated us well.
"We bounce off each other and we all have different attributes and complement each other well. It's a good start and we're never going to shy away from that relentlessness."
Carse also took three catches to help Stokes to a five-wicket haul. "He's amazing," he said of his captain. "His character, his resilience ... it's everything this team strives to be and that was a game-changing spell.
"As Ducky (Ben Duckett) said a couple of weeks ago, he's in Beast Mode at the moment. Hopefully that pays off for him throughout the series."
On his own bowling and claiming the vital wicket of stand-in captain Smith, Carse said: "There's enough assistance there with the pace and the bounce and I was trying to hit the wicket as hard as I could throughout the day.
"I was just trying to keep it simple. There were a couple of balls I was delighted with. It's always nice to get one of the best players in the world out."
After seeing the most wickets fall in a day in the Ashes since 1909, England's former Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan told the BBC: "I think we all need to lie down. With these contests, there's a massive build up and sometimes it doesn't quite live up to the hype - that was not the case today.
"The (England) bowlers had to get the batters out of trouble. England had an attack today where all five quick bowlers bowled with skill, pace - they were intimidating. Those first overs from Archer and Atkinson was some of the best bowling I've seen from England in a while."
The former opener was less complimentary about England's batting, as they threw away a decent position having recovered from the shock of losing Zac Crawley in the first over.
"The way that England batted, playing all their shots and giving Australia four or five wickets ... chasing 250 might be an easy chase because the pitch might flatten out.
"England need to realise that if there’s a player in like Jamie Smith, the tail can’t come out swinging. Show a bit of cricket nous. England should easily have got another 50, 60, 70 and that could be the difference between winning and losing."
