🔗 Share this article ‘The Wicket is Offering Plenty’: Tongue Celebrates Five-Wicket Haul and Defends England Batting Approach. After collapsing to a total of 110 in Melbourne, another revolution of the unceasing wheel of pain on the current Ashes tour, but for Josh Tongue day one of the fourth Test was also a career high. “It’s a dream come true,” Tongue said at the end of a action-packed day where a remarkable 20 wickets tumbled. “I’ve always wanted to play in the Ashes, whether at home or abroad, and this is incredibly special. To be here at the Melbourne Cricket Ground with all my family in as well makes it even better.” The state of the game is already leaning towards Australia, 46 runs ahead on first innings and batting again on an notoriously lively surface that may now settle on day two. But this was undeniably Tongue’s moment, the standout bowler with a personal best figures of 5/45 as England rolled Australia out for 152. “It was a fantastic day of Test cricket on Boxing Day. Obviously coming to the ground here this morning, securing the toss and electing to bowl first, I thought we did a superb job as a collective attack.” “And obviously they’ve bowled well as well. It’s a surface offering significant movement. But we’ve got to just regroup tomorrow and do the same again.” “I feel like if you put the ball in the right areas, which I felt like we did today as a group, you’re going to reap the benefits. It feels like that fuller length definitely helped, it helped me, definitely, with my angle.” Defending the Approach There may be something jarring for English fans in hearing Tongue echo the familiar mantras about putting pressure on their opponents, playing an positive style of cricket and so on, something England did here by just about crawling past three figures at 3.7 runs an over. “That’s our brand of cricket. We play a very positive brand of cricket. We try and force the issue and take it back to them.” Tongue said there was no real direction on how England would bat on this surface, arguably unwisely given they were bowled out in less than 30 overs. “We didn’t have an extensive discussion. I feel like we want to put pressure back on to the opposition, so the next batter in thinks it’s the right time to accelerate or put them into pressure. “I think, identifying scoring areas is vitally important on this sort of wicket when the ball is moving around. But yeah, I thought Harry Brook batted exceptionally well. The runs that he got were absolutely vital in obviously a small first innings total.” Dismissing a Legend Tongue’s spell also contained the latest stage in a run of cross-format success against Steve Smith, but he laughed off suggestions he might “hold an advantage” over him. “No, he’s clearly a world-class batter. I watched him as a kid, and dismissing him is a very special feeling. But yeah, to me, it’s just another batsman that I want to try and get out. It doesn’t really matter who he is. My main goal is to get the batter out at the other end. So yeah, it’s obviously a nice feeling.” A View from the Other End There was a more cautious assessment at stumps from Michael Neser, a leading wicket-taker in England’s reply and a career-long student of the MCG surface. “We know it can deteriorate quickly on day one and day two, then when the wicket compacts and loses moisture it can be good for batting. So I don’t want to have the preconceptions tomorrow that the pitch is going to do a lot. It could be a different proposition second innings.” Australia will begin day two with 10 wickets in hand and Travis Head at the crease, alongside surely one of the best-supported nightwatchmen in Test history, the local boy Scott Boland. Asked if he felt the green-tinged wicket did too much on day one of a Test, Neser had a concise answer. “As a bowler, I'd say no”.
After collapsing to a total of 110 in Melbourne, another revolution of the unceasing wheel of pain on the current Ashes tour, but for Josh Tongue day one of the fourth Test was also a career high. “It’s a dream come true,” Tongue said at the end of a action-packed day where a remarkable 20 wickets tumbled. “I’ve always wanted to play in the Ashes, whether at home or abroad, and this is incredibly special. To be here at the Melbourne Cricket Ground with all my family in as well makes it even better.” The state of the game is already leaning towards Australia, 46 runs ahead on first innings and batting again on an notoriously lively surface that may now settle on day two. But this was undeniably Tongue’s moment, the standout bowler with a personal best figures of 5/45 as England rolled Australia out for 152. “It was a fantastic day of Test cricket on Boxing Day. Obviously coming to the ground here this morning, securing the toss and electing to bowl first, I thought we did a superb job as a collective attack.” “And obviously they’ve bowled well as well. It’s a surface offering significant movement. But we’ve got to just regroup tomorrow and do the same again.” “I feel like if you put the ball in the right areas, which I felt like we did today as a group, you’re going to reap the benefits. It feels like that fuller length definitely helped, it helped me, definitely, with my angle.” Defending the Approach There may be something jarring for English fans in hearing Tongue echo the familiar mantras about putting pressure on their opponents, playing an positive style of cricket and so on, something England did here by just about crawling past three figures at 3.7 runs an over. “That’s our brand of cricket. We play a very positive brand of cricket. We try and force the issue and take it back to them.” Tongue said there was no real direction on how England would bat on this surface, arguably unwisely given they were bowled out in less than 30 overs. “We didn’t have an extensive discussion. I feel like we want to put pressure back on to the opposition, so the next batter in thinks it’s the right time to accelerate or put them into pressure. “I think, identifying scoring areas is vitally important on this sort of wicket when the ball is moving around. But yeah, I thought Harry Brook batted exceptionally well. The runs that he got were absolutely vital in obviously a small first innings total.” Dismissing a Legend Tongue’s spell also contained the latest stage in a run of cross-format success against Steve Smith, but he laughed off suggestions he might “hold an advantage” over him. “No, he’s clearly a world-class batter. I watched him as a kid, and dismissing him is a very special feeling. But yeah, to me, it’s just another batsman that I want to try and get out. It doesn’t really matter who he is. My main goal is to get the batter out at the other end. So yeah, it’s obviously a nice feeling.” A View from the Other End There was a more cautious assessment at stumps from Michael Neser, a leading wicket-taker in England’s reply and a career-long student of the MCG surface. “We know it can deteriorate quickly on day one and day two, then when the wicket compacts and loses moisture it can be good for batting. So I don’t want to have the preconceptions tomorrow that the pitch is going to do a lot. It could be a different proposition second innings.” Australia will begin day two with 10 wickets in hand and Travis Head at the crease, alongside surely one of the best-supported nightwatchmen in Test history, the local boy Scott Boland. Asked if he felt the green-tinged wicket did too much on day one of a Test, Neser had a concise answer. “As a bowler, I'd say no”.