‘The Surface is Providing Assistance’: Tongue Celebrates Five-Fer and Justifies England Aggressive Mindset.

After collapsing to a total of 110 in the MCG, yet another challenging episode on the current Ashes tour, but for the young seamer day one of the Boxing Day Test was also a career high.

“Dreams come true,” he stated at the end of a action-packed day where a remarkable 20 wickets tumbled. “Playing in the Ashes has always been the goal, if it’s home or away, and this is incredibly special. To be here at the Melbourne Cricket Ground with all my family in as well is the icing on the cake.”

The match situation is already leaning towards Australia, 46 runs ahead on first innings and batting again on an notoriously lively surface that could potentially ease on day two. But this was also Tongue’s day, the star performer with a career best five for 45 as England dismissed Australia for 152.

“It’s been an amazing day of Test match cricket on this historic day. Arriving at the venue this morning, winning the toss and putting the Aussies in to bat, I thought we did a superb job as a bowling unit.”

“Credit to them, they bowled well too. It’s a surface offering significant movement. But we’ve got to just regroup tomorrow and repeat the performance.”

“I feel like if you bowl in good 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, for sure, with my natural angle.”

Defending the Approach

There may be a sense of dissonance for English fans in hearing Tongue repeated the playbook chapter headings about putting pressure on their opponents, playing an positive style of cricket and so on, something England did here by scraping past 100 runs at a rate of 3.7 per over. “It’s how we play our cricket. We play a highly aggressive style 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, perhaps inadvisably given they were dismissed inside 30 overs. “There wasn’t really a big chat at all. I feel like we want to put pressure back on to the opposition, so whoever walks out thinks it’s the appropriate moment to accelerate or put them into pressure.

“I think, identifying scoring areas is vitally important on this sort of wicket when the ball is doing a bit more. But yeah, I thought Brookie 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 consistent performances against Steve Smith, but he laughed off suggestions he might “have the wood” over him.

“No, he’s obviously an amazing player. I watched him as a kid, and obviously getting him out is a huge thrill. But yeah, to me, it’s just another batter 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 a great feeling.”

The Bowler’s Perspective

There was a more ominous take at stumps from Michael Neser, a leading wicket-taker in England’s reply and a career-long student of the Melbourne pitch.

“We know it can deteriorate quickly on day one and day two, then when the wicket hardens up and dries out it can be nice to bat on. So I don’t want to assume tomorrow that the pitch is going to offer as much. It could be a different proposition second innings.”

Australia will resume on 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 homegrown talent Scott Boland. Asked if he felt the grassy pitch did too much on day one of a Test, Neser had a brief reply. “As a bowler, I'd say no”.