Carse justifies England faith as the archetypal bold pick

If you won a boxing match after your opponent continually punched themselves in the face, how much credit can you take?

- CAMERON PONSONBY

England are one-nil up against New Zealand. They played well, deserved it, and have two enormous bright spots in the emergence of Brydon Carse and Jacob Bethell. But wow, New Zealand were bad. A team famed for their competence, coming off the back of a historic series victory against India, dropped the ball. Eight times.

From a result-based perspective, it is impossible to look beyond this as a key factor in England’s victory. The visitors were 45 for three when Harry Brook arrived at the crease and in trouble. Brook went on to make 171 and was dropped five times along the way. Three of those occasions came before he reached 60. According to statistics company CricViz, which has ball-tracking data going back to 2006, only on one other occasion in the previous 18 years has a player been dropped five times in an innings: Stuart Broad in 2009. The Kiwis were making history again, this time the bad kind.

But you can only beat what’s put in front of you and England cannot be blamed for capitalising on their opponents’ generosity, with Carse, in particular, impressing.

Since breaking into the team two months ago in Pakistan, Carse has been a revelation, his promising performances in Multan and then Rawalpindi followed up with a perfect one here in Christchurch. Ten wickets across the match, he became the first England seamer to achieve the feat in an away Test since Ryan Sidebottom in 2008. Neither James Anderson nor Stuart Broad managed it across 357 Tests between them. Carse did it in three.