He turned the primary England bowler this century to gather a five-wicket haul in a Take a look at
Josh Tongue of England holds up the ball as he leaves the sector after taking a 5 wicket haul throughout day one of many Fourth Take a look at within the 2025/26 Ashes Collection between Australia and England. Photograph: AFP
MELBOURNE:
Historical past-making seamer Josh Tongue hailed England’s bowling unit for the “wonderful job” they did Friday and mentioned extra of the identical was deliberate to get a outcome within the fourth Ashes Take a look at.
Tongue led the assault in entrance of a file 94,199 crowd on the Melbourne Cricket Floor, bagging 5-45 because the hosts have been dismissed for 152.
In doing so, he turned the primary England bowler this century to gather a five-wicket haul in a Take a look at on the cavernous stadium.
The final Englishmen to realize the feat have been Darren Gough and Dean Headley in 1998.
However with England skittled out for 110 in 29.5 overs in lower than a session, the tempo bowling battery have one other massive job forward on Saturday to maintain their facet within the recreation.
“It has been an incredible day of Take a look at match cricket,” mentioned the Nottinghamshire fast after his finest bowling return in his eighth Take a look at.
“Clearly coming to the bottom right here this morning, profitable the toss, placing the Aussies into bat and bowling them out for 150 odd, I believed we did an incredible job as a bowling unit.
“Clearly they bowled properly, as properly. It is a pitch which is doing fairly a bit, and, yeah, we have got to come back again tomorrow and do the identical once more that we did first innings.
“I really feel like for those who put the ball in the best areas, which I felt like we did immediately, you are going to get your rewards,” he added.
“So that you simply keep affected person and dangle in there.”
With tempo spearhead Jofra Archer out of the sequence with a facet pressure, Tongue and Gus Atkinson rose to the problem, discovering motion on a grassy wicket.
Brydon Carse was wayward early, however tightened up his line and size to pose a menace, as did skipper Ben Stokes when he got here on after lunch.
“I really feel like anybody may have taken a ‘five-fer’ immediately. It may have been Brydon, it may have been Gus,” mentioned Tongue.
“Once I’m at my finest I am bowling at that fuller size. Stokes has spoken to us fairly a bit about it, going a contact fuller however hitting the pitch laborious.
“We get the ball in the identical areas tomorrow we get them three or 4 wickets down within the first hour.”
Tongue was not within the staff for the primary two Assessments at Perth and Brisbane, and referred to as it a “dream come true” to be strolling out at a packed Melbourne Cricket Floor on Boxing Day along with his household on the town.
“I really feel just like the laborious work that I put in, investing in my physique and ensuring I am in a superb place bodily, I’ve type of received to provide myself a little bit of credit score,” he mentioned.
“And clearly, these type of moments hopefully come extra usually.”
