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Carberry hails Johnson's pace

England opener Michael Carberry has rated his battle with Australian quick Mitchell Johnson as among the fastest spells of bowling he’s faced in his lengthy career.

Even though he is playing in his first Ashes Test, and just his second Test for England, Carberry is a veteran of the English county scene who has scored more than 10,000 first-class runs.

And he rated Johnson, who worked over Carberry with a series of short-pitched deliveries before having him caught in the slips for an innings-high 40, as one of the quickest he’s had to deal with at the top of the order.

“In terms of pace he’s up there with some of the quickest I’ve faced in my time, but more importantly he put the ball in the right areas,” Carberry said.

“The Australians bowled really well through the innings, and we were never able to get away from them at any point.”

While conceding there was disappointment within the England dressing room at the scale and speed of a batting collapse that at one stage saw six wickets fall for the addition of just nine runs in the space of around 10 overs, Carberry claimed the day’s events had not irredeemably dented his team’s self-belief.

“It was a disappointing session just before tea that really swung the game,” he said. “It’s always hard starting your innings against a bowling unit that has got their tails up, and that was the case with the Australians today.

“But our guys (the England batsmen) are proven, world-class players and that doesn’t change overnight.

“We just have to focus on trying to get back in the game, then we can look at what’s needed with our batting second time around.”

Certainly Stuart Broad, who has endured the tedious taunts of Australian crowds and newspapers with admirable good humour, could be rightly peeved by the lack of support shown by his batting teammates.

His first innings bowling return of 6-81 lifted his yield from his past three Test outings against Australia to 22 wickets at an average of almost 17, and carried him to 223 Test wickets, past 2005 Ashes hero Andrew Flintoff (219) on England’s all-time wicket-takers’ list.

And as the England innings disintegrated before his disbelieving eyes, Broad defied the conservative mindset that gripped some of his more accomplished batting colleagues and contributed a defiant 32 from 45 balls that emerged as the tourists’ sole highlight of a forgettable day’s work.