CA\u2019s shock admission over Boxing Day<\/a><\/p>\nTongue smashes Smiths’ stumps with seed | 00:56<\/p>\n
Pressed on his dismissal of Smith, Tongue continued: \u201cIt was a nice ball\u2026 I\u2019m looking for the ball to go away naturally, so if it does hit the seam and comes back in, then if I don\u2019t know, then the batter\u2019s probably not going to know.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like that\u2019s one of my main attributes as a bowler\u2026 when I see the ball coming back in, I know I\u2019m in a good place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tongue controversially missed selection for the opening two Ashes Tests, sidelined in favour of fellow speedster Brydon Carse, but since being recalled for last week\u2019s Adelaide contest, he has taken ten scalps at 17.90, becoming England\u2019s second-leading wicket-taker of the series.<\/p>\n
He bowled an eight-over burst before lunch on day one at the MCG, knocking over Jake Weatherald, Marnus Labuschagne and Smith in what he described as \u201cone of his best spells\u201d for England. After helping clean up the tail, he became the first Englishman to take a five-wicket haul in a Boxing Day Test at the MCG since 1998.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a dream come true,\u201d Tongue continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to play in the Ashes, if it\u2019s home or away, and it obviously feels very special being here at the MCG with all my family in as well, which makes it even better.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI want to make a difference in the side and take wickets for England, and that\u2019s how we\u2019re going to win games of cricket.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier in his career, Tongue suffered from thoracic outlet syndrome – a condition that impacts nerves and blood vessels near the shoulder – while he recently spent 15 months on the sidelines due to a pectoral muscle rupture and a torn hamstring.<\/p>\n
The recovery process was arduous, but the \u201chard work\u201d has paid dividends.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like the hard work that I put in, investing in my body and making sure I\u2019m in a good place physically, I\u2019ve got to give myself a bit of credit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Josh Tongue takes boxing day 5fer | 02:34<\/p>\n
Tongue understandably didn\u2019t have many complaints about the MCG\u2019s green deck, which generated plenty of seam movement on Friday. It was the most wickets to fall on the first day of a Test match in Australia since 1951.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like if you put the ball in the right areas, which I felt like we did today as a bowling unit, you\u2019re going to get your rewards,\u201d he said of the pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat fuller length definitely helped. It helped me definitely with my angle and making sure you\u2019re hitting the pitch hard as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like if you\u2019re that short of a length, you just sat up a tiny bit, so just making sure you\u2019re brave with your length.\u201d<\/p>\n
England was rolled for 110, the nation\u2019s lowest first-innings total in Australia since 1977, to give the hosts a narrow 42-run lead. Despite being bowled out in less than 30 overs, Tongue denied there were any feelings of frustration among the England bowlers about the short turnaround.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t mind, it\u2019s how we play our cricket,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe play a very positive brand of cricket. We try and put pressure on the opposition and take it back to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it didn\u2019t work that well today.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fourth Ashes Test between Australia and England resumes on Saturday at 10.30 am AEDT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five innings, five dismissals. England seamer Josh Tongue may have unearthed a bunny in Steve Smith, yet again…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-373818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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