Australia keeper Alex Carey has the last laugh after a match-defining innings as England fall to 68-run defeat in second ODI clash – despite Adil Rashid taking milestone wicket

Alex Carey returned the pantomime boos with interest to consign England to another comprehensive defeat – their 10th in 14 one-day internationals.

Carey was expecting a hostile reception at the Headingley home of Jonny Bairstow, the man he dismissed with a controversial stumping during last year’s Ashes, and was not disappointed as he walked to the crease halfway through Australia’s innings.

‘I was aware of it, but it was business as usual. A lot of the noise disappears when you focus and that’s the head space I like to get into,’ said Carey, after countering the jeers with a match-defining 74.

The 33-year-old bete noire of Lord’s last summer would not have been playing but for a thigh injury to Josh Inglis and there was further irony in his first innings for six months – complemented by a brilliant diving catch during a power play period in which England were reduced to 65 for five – coming in the city of his wicketkeeping rival’s birth.

Flitting between brain and brawn, the left-hander marshalled things from 145 for four, after Australia were asked to bat first, combining in a 55-run stand with Aaron Hardie inside eight overs and then farming the strike adroitly to add a further 49 for the 10th wicket with Josh Hazlewood.

England were left dejected as they lost by 68 runs in their clash against Australia

The Australia players were delighted after securing victory at Headingley on Saturday

‘I’ve sat on the bench for the last period, an opportunity popped up, I don’t know how long it will last but I’ve had great fun,’ said Carey.

‘To get back into the game scenario was great. Once you get out there and the competitive juices come back it feels like just another day.’

Australia captain Mitchell Marsh weighed in with 60 on a ground where he resuscitated his own international career with that thumping Ashes hundred 14 months ago, the 68-run victory his side’s 14th in succession in this format – a sequence second only to the 21 Australia’s vintage of 2003 reeled off.

In contrast, an England side led by Harry Brook is struggling to absorb pressure but intent on sticking with the Bazball methodology that has transformed the Test team’s fortunes under Brendon McCullum.

‘We are an inexperienced side playing one of the best in the world, it is a new era and it is about patience and trying to have fun as well,’ said Brook.

Ultimately, however, it was the inability to both finish off Australia’s innings and then withstand a new-ball barrage led by Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, both returning from illness to strengthen the Australians, that proved decisive on a pitch of pace and bounce.

The loss of eight wickets for 102 runs when well set prevented Brook’s side batting their opponents out of things at Trent Bridge in game one, and a similar implosion of six for 76 threatened to undermine Australia here.

When Glenn Maxwell became Adil Rashid’s 200th ODI wicket – of spinners, only Saqlain Mushtaq and Shane Warne have reached the landmark in fewer innings than Rashid’s 131 – momentum was with England.

Adil Rashid reached the landmark of his 200th ODI wicket to provide a rare positive

Jacob Bethell looked to help England improve but Australia were still dominant

But the Australians scrambled to a defendable total of 270 and then caught brilliantly to dismiss half their opponents within the first 10 overs, all but settling the result in the process.

Carey and Matt Short both flung themselves into dives to cling on to edges while an agile, left-handed grab in his follow through gave Aaron Hardie the first of two wickets in two balls.

In the midst of the clatter, Brook – the first Yorkshireman to captain England in a one-day match at Headingley – was pinned by a classical in-swinger from left-armer Starc.

Jamie Smith and Jacob Bethell, two of the bright young things England have turned to in a bid to end the malaise that began at last year’s World Cup, attempted to revive the innings with a half-century alliance for the sixth wicket, but the damage had already been done.

While Smith remained, so did hope, but his dismissal immediately after drinks one run shy of a maiden 50 for England’s white-ball teams – suckered into a flick to the leg-side by Hazlewood – hastened the demise.

Earlier in the day, Travis Head had taken his overall tally in four innings against England this month to 273 runs when he picked out long leg in pursuit of a seventh boundary.

Australia bowler Adam Zampa is congratulated after he took the wicket of Brydon Carse

England built on that when a switch to the Kirskstall Lane end for Matthew Potts coincided with a double breakthrough: deliveries nipping either way off the seam accounting for Matthew Short and Steve Smith, another target for a vociferous home crowd.

But they were silenced by Carey and Brook’s team now head to Chester-le-Street on Tuesday 2-0 down with three to play.