Mayhem in Melbourne on bonkers Boxing Day

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From BBC Radio 5 live.

Tongue bowls and he's forward.

He's caught in second slip. He'll be on a hat trick in the second innings.

Brooke has taken the catch.

Tongue takes 5 for 45.

They're all out for 152 green balls. Oh, he's bowled in.

It's all over and England have been bowled out for 110. 10 and Australia have a first innings lead of 42. Well, we've had a record crowd at the MCG today and a wild day. 20 wickets going down for 266. 46 runs ahead, Australia with all 10 wickets in hand. Bold out for 152 in 45.2 overs with Josh Tung taking 5 for 45. Michael Neeser coming in at number 8 and back into the side. The leading scorer for Australia with 35. Could England take advantage? No, they were 16 for 4. Harry Bright came down the pitch, first ball to try and smash Mitchell Stark over extra cover. He actually was England's leading scorer with 41. But Australia gradually worked their way through England's batting. There was some late resistance from Gus Atkinson that got England up to 110. There's a last wicket partnership of 19, which is the second highest in England's innings. So plenty to talk about in this podcast, plenty to talk about over the next half an hour or so and we'll get some reaction from both sides. Michael Vaughan is here, Jonathan Agnew is here, and Glenn McGrath is here. Let's start with you, Michael. 20 wickets in the day, whose fault is that? Is it the batters? Is it the curator's fault? Is there too much in the pitch? What do you think?

The pitch has done plenty and there's been plenty of movement out there. There's been, you know, some good bowling, there's been some indifferent batting. You know, there's been some mistakes. But, you know, I think the kind of the end summarization of a day is this crowd will have gone home royally entertained. But this isn't test cricket, you know, on this kind of pitch, you know, I think he's done too much, but also I question the technical side of a lot of the players. You know, I think we're looking at an England side that as soon as it does anything, that's the third time in the series that they've been bowled out in under 35 hours. You can't tell me that Perth and now here at the G, you should be getting bowled out in under 35 overs. And you know, that's down to the application and the technical side of some of the players. But have I been entertained? I have, I've enjoyed it quite a lot actually because it's been kind of non stop. It's moving at a fast pace. But do I like to see test match cricket played like this here at Melbourne in front of 90 odd thousand people? No, no, I, I think the pitch is offered a little bit too much. But there's also a question mark over the modern player, the modern era, that when the ball does something, you know, I think the technical side of what we've, I guess, been accustomed to for, for many, many generations, that that side has kind of gone from, you know, both sets of players. You know, it's not just the England side. Australia were bought out for 152 as well, with a highest score coming from Michael Nisa. So it's not been easy for both sides. But I don't like to see a pitch do so much. I think we're always looking for a Fair balance between bat and ball. I thought that was a little bit unfair for the bastards.

So great for spectators that turned up today. But what about for the spectators, you know, might be turning up on the third day, got tickets for the third day say, and come a long way and paid a lot of money to.

What, to test them. I look at cricket Australia, they had a two day game in per's, lost a huge amount of money. You know, I joked on commentary that cricket Australia might be busking down the south bank in the next few days because they need some cash. And you know, we should be speaking about that's been what 30,000 England supporters travel over and you know, we're in great danger that this test match could be finished inside two, two days. But I think the pitch might flatten out and batting you would hope would get a little bit easier. But we, we all love test cricket and we don't mind when the game goes to days three or days four when it's kind of an even contest. But you know, to think that 20 wickets have fallen on a, on a first, I, I don't even know how many overs we've had. We hadn't had.

Well, Australia batted for 45.2, England for 29.5.

We're looking at what, 75 overs of play, not even a full day's play. We've had 20 wickets. And yeah, it's great humor that you've got Travis Head opening the batting twice on Boxing Day and Scott Ball and the local here of the evation he got there for surviving that last ever again. Great drama, great entertainment, but oh, that's not test cricket for me. What we've seen to date, it was a day where there was some poor batting, some really good bowling pitch doing too much. And I guess we're in an era where we, we're constantly seeing test matches like this where the pitch does a little bit, whether it's spin, whether it's seam, batters can't cope with that, that movement, whether it is through the spinning ball or whether it is through the seaming ball. It's, it's a common trend across the modern game that as soon as the ball does something, teams get bowled out quite quickly.

How did you see it?

Well, it felt a bit end of series to me. You know, would, would either team have batted quite as badly if it had been one, one or you know, going, going into this with, with it, with everything still on the line? I'd hope not. You'd hope that they would actually knuckle down and. And fight harder. It just felt like a bit like what it is. 3 nil. And you know, the ball nipping around as Michael was saying. And it's not the application that they should have. They should have been. I mean, it did do a fair amount. I think that's fair. But I mean, it's not a minefield.

It.

It just nipped. I thought Australia. I mean, I've just got this horrible feeling in my water whether Australia's gonna have a good day tomorrow because they've got. They've got the bowlers. Yeah, they've got the bowlers who bowl the right length relentlessly. We've talked about it a lot in this series, haven't we? You just look at, look at England's bowlers. Atkinson does that. Carts will run up and bang it in again. Tongue decent. But I mean, they were relentless, really. I thought Jai Richardson was. Philip, he was sort of searching a bit. So they took him out and brought NISA back again. But if you wanted to have an attack that's available for Australia for a pitch like that, then they ran in a bolt on it today. I don't know. I mean, England, Bethel, what can you say about that? Out he comes. It's his fourth first class match of the year. Out he goes in front of 94,000 and got a decent ball, isn't it? Early on you can. You're allowed to nick that route is interesting. 15 ball duck. You don't often see that from. From Joe Root. Harry Brooks first shot. I just really, really quite speechless, actually.

The charge down the pitch.

Yeah. An absolute wild swipe. I mean, the six. And he did it at Adelaide. He hit a beautiful six over extra cover by getting. By being in the right position. I mean, it's an incredibly talented shot to play, but he played it by giving himself the chance to play it and the ball's in the right place for it and all that stuff. But it was a. It was a controlled shot. It was a beautiful stroke. The first ball was not a beautiful stroke. If it got out to that, I don't know what we'd have been saying, really. I mean, he's the vice captain. Yeah. You can't come out and play a shot like that first ball, can you?

No, in a funny kind of way. The bassball way probably was required on this kind of surface. Yes.

To be positive.

Yeah. I think a lot. I look at Harry and he's got genius tendencies. He plays shots that not many can play. But, you know, I thought he was just getting into his groove, actually, the field was spreading. He started to play nicely. And he gets one from Scotty Bowl. It's a good ball. Nips back. You know, I look at Jacob Bethel Aggers and I look at a young kid, he's played four first class matches and he's going to throw him out at number three on that pitch against Mitchell Stark, Scott Bol, I just think you're giving kids no chance. No. You know, he's never got a first class sunder. And you're asking him to deliver.

Yeah.

On this stage, in front of 90,000 when his team are three nil down, if you're going to put him in the side just for two games, all move up one and let Jacob come in at number six.

Yeah, absolutely.

Give him a chance. Give him a chance to at least.

Come in when you assumed would happen, actually.

Well, it's like I think I started my test career in the middle. You know, I was at number four at times in Sri Lanka, I think at six or seven. Against the West Indies at home, I think I was 6 or 7. You know, to throw a kid that's played no cricket at number three. I agree. In an ashy series against this quality, I just think you're giving him no chance. It's just unfair on the young player.

Let's bring Glenn in. So, Glenn, how many Test wickets would you have got if you'd bowled on a surface like that? In every match you made, you took 500 nod, but, well, you wouldn't mind.

It, you know, just on a length, nipping it around. And I watched England bowl in that first session and they bowled some good deliveries, but it wasn't consistently on that spot, ball after ball. And I was just curious to see how Australia would go because I thought they'd be a lot more consistently in that right area. And I think the score probably tells the story between the two bowling attacks. So, yeah, this pitch has got far too much grass on it. I was saying 7 mil, but it's actually 10 mil. I thought 7 probably would have been better, but I think he was more concerned about what's happening day three, four.

And five, and we don't need to bother about that.

So. So, yeah, you know, Test cricket, that pitch has got too much life in it for Test cricket. But, yeah, I thought the way Brook came out, I was happy with the way he came out. I know that first ball looked terrible, but the ball was not where he wanted it. And you still swing through and you're nowhere near it. So it was just one of those things. But, yeah, the Australians bowled well. It's hard to apply yourself on a pitch that's doing plenty. Because if you're looking to defend one's got your name on it, you've got to find that balance between some help keeping balls out while still looking to score. So it's tough.

People might be joining us or they might look at the scorecard or whatever on the BBC Sport website and they say, oh, no, England again, 110, all that. But actually, is there a case for saying that actually Australia batted more poorly than England today? Actually, look at some of the dismissals from Australia. They were a bit loose. And actually England were bowled out by some actually really good bowling from Australia today.

Well, I, I look at the pitch, you know, I always kind of think, oh, what would par be? You know, if you played really well? I think par on a pitch like today would be 250. You know, you'd have to play really well.

You take 250 on that pitch.

Yeah, but to get a 250, one player probably needs to get you an 80 now, really dig in and hang in there. And a couple of partnership gets you to that number. So we're not talking about a pitch of 400. You know, this is a tough batting surface, but it's just the application of, of some of the technical side. I, I look at someone like Jamie Smith, he plants that, that front foot down and he can't go again. So you, I Look at Clem McGraw in particularly, or John yourself, you'd be just looking at.

Just explain that.

So he's left foot, he's got a nice wide base and that left foot just plants down. It pretty much plants down in the same position every ball. He's got an amazing eye and he's got good hands. So he can use his hands in his eye to kind of time the ball. But when the ball's on and around fourth stump, he doesn't take that foot towards the line of that ball. It just stays in that same position. And then his hands go towards the line of the ball. And if there's any nip, you can see it. And he doesn't bend that front knee, so his front knee stays quite upright and straight. So then you put your bat towards the ball and the line, the ball nips back and there's a gap between bat and pad. It's what you get taught as a young kid when you're batting. Get that bat and pad close together. The only way you can do that, your head transfers towards the line of the ball, your foot follows and guess what? You get that bat close and if it knits back, it hits you on the pad or it hits the inside edge and you get away with it.

Also, short leg. I think it's a great position for Jameson.

Fantastic.

They brought him in so you could get inside edge into the pad. I mean, you could see that wicket coming.

So the technical side of Jamie Smith, it does need to improve.

Can you improve it?

Yes, of course you can. You can improve your technique. Technique is something that needs repetition and it's not during the series, really, because you need a long time to kind of just change that technical error. So there's one or two of the England players that you look at and you think technical, technically they're a little bit short, but when you're up against quality and the pitch is doing something, you 3 nil down in a series, your mental resolve can sometimes be very fragile. And you're looking at this thing inside. What's come through in terms of the noise, the pressure that they're under from. From us, you know, from many in the media, rightfully so. They've played poorly. But what I don't want to see is them to fall in a heap. You know, there was a time today I was thinking, you're going to fall in a heap here. You know, 16 for four. This is. This is really ugly. And this team has got to be very, very careful. I know it's ugly. The three nil down. They've got to be very, very careful that it doesn't end really, really badly. And they've got to try and find some kind of mental resolve and just, Just a little tweak or two with their techniques slightly, if they can, into the second innings, they might have a chance. But I just looked at a few players today and they look gone. They do. Look at Ben Duckett. Ben Duckett looks gone at the top of the order at the minute.

I think you're right about, About Australia's innings, though. I think England did have some luck getting a number of those wickets, didn't they? I mean, they did, you know, and that's why I fear a bit for tomorrow with another heavy roller on it and a warmer day and. And so on and a bit more pace in the pitch. Maybe England's got a bowl. Well tomorrow. I mean, they've got. They've got absolutely bowl out of their skins. But there's a lovely moment. Among my favorite moments of the day was Carrie's dismissal. It actually sums up the day a bit and, and the way that Australia did gift some of their wickets. But it's one of those as a captain, you'd have love that Michael, wouldn't you? Deep square leg now. Come on. Come to leg slip. First ball, boom. Hits it straight to leg slip. I mean, it's just one of those moments. I mean that I thought rather summed up the way that Australia batted today.

The weather, all dismissal. England had square leg on the boundary. I'm looking. Why is he back there? Midwicket, mid on. They want to go full and straight to him. So they went full and straight. Got it a bit straight caught down the leg side. All right. It's a bit unfortunate as a batter, but you could see there was a clear plan to get Jake Weatherell out. So there was, there was some good. I really enjoy watching Josh tongb. You know, I said before Perth, I staggered that he wasn't playing in Perth. 18 wickets against India in the summer. He's a wicket taker. Five against Australia in 2023 at Lord in only one Test match. You know, every time I watch him bow as a right hander in particular, I go, I won't want to face him because of the angle and you have to play it because he kind of falls away and he kind of pushes it in. But then he's got that ability to make the ball stand up and he turns you around as a battery, you know, particularly the right handers. So I've been really pleased to see him bowl. So as much as it's doom and gloom, you know, there are one or two things that you see. Gus Atkinson come back into the side today. Again, he's a good bowler. He really is high class. He gets it up there, wobbling it around. So there's, there's things that you see that are bad, but you also things see that you see things that you go, yeah, there's areas where this team can clearly get better in the future. But the technical side of the batting and the mental side of the bat and across the board in test match cricket in the last few years, as soon as it does anything, there's not many teams, there's not many batting lineups.

Just curious there with Josh Tongue, you know, we saw in Adelaide, he actually bowled really well. Picked up his fourth wicket with the old ball and soon as new ball was taken, next over, he was off again tonight, you know, he's on a hat trick coming out. You know, why wouldn't you give him the. The one and only over tonight in this in front of you Know the barmy army, this crowd. I reckon, I reckon Ben Stokes missed. I'm not sure.

Perhaps he didn't realize, perhaps he'd forgotten he was on hat trick.

I don't know.

I would have let him keep bottling with a new ball in Adelaide, give him a chance to get five. He picked up five here bowler pretty well and a chance for a hat trick.

You're right in what. What you say in terms of. There was some tactics that were very good today. You've just highlighted, John. And then there was something. Ben Stokes not bowling in the morning session, not bowling in the second innings in Adelaide till the game was a bit too late about this morning and thought after two hours of briding cars he was not getting it right. It was that moment that you go, come on, Ben, grab the ball out of his hand and take it yourself. And we're in a low scoring game. So that 152, you don't know, it could have been a 120 all out. If England have bowled even better cast, allowed them to get too many quick runs too early. And there are certain little aspects throughout the whole series that I've looked down for. This isn't right, you know, Ben's not bowling himself at the right times often enough and he's. When he's bowling, he's without any question England's best bowler. You know, he gets the ball nibbling either way. Ball's a good length and that happened again today, so. And absolutely right.

When you saw Stokes captain in Pakistan when they won 3 nil, a lot of that was down to his captaincy, busy fields, going all over the place. He's not been the same on this tour. He hasn't and he has me. I think there have been mistakes made tactically, his bowling selection, lots and lots of different things. But comparing the way he's in the field now with how he was on that series, it's very different.

Do you think one of England's problems is they don't have opening bowlers here? They don't have that settled opening attack, do they? You two are bowlers. I mean, is there a difference between being a third bowler, a fourth bowler and an opening bowler? Glenn?

I think most bowlers want to be the opening bowler to get your first over. If there's a strong breeze, it's not ideal as opening bowler be bowling up into it. But you know, to get the new ball is what you want to do. So.

Yeah.

So I'm thinking Brighton cart. Is he an opening bowler?

No, he's not. I'll say that now. No, he's not.

But Ben Stokes likes him for some reason. Always throws him the ball with the new ball. So I don't know. So I would have had know tongue opening the bowling this morning. Cuz he just b. I think he just bowls good areas, really good areas on a pitch like this. Cast was always going to be a little bit too short. Not as effective on a pitch like this. So yeah, you've got to read the conditions. But I don't know, it's.

It's been a couple of times I, I think Ben Stokes should have taken the new ball and today would have been another one. I just think he's so good that. Why are you the fourth seamer in attack that when you bow your best, your England's best bowler.

Is that a captain thing?

Yeah, I think, I think he has a lot of empathy for his players and he tries to give his players the opportunity before him. He's like, I'll be. I'm like last pick in the bowling department in his eyes. He shouldn't be. And there should be someone saying to him, the coach should be saying to him, look, Ben, you're our best bowler. You take that new cherry, you could get three or four quick ones with the way that you bowl. And by the way, if you don't bowl great with it, you're always good enough to come back with the older.

Ball, couple overs, get the other guys on. So yeah, I don't disagree with that.

Pawnee.

What do you say to that, Jonathan, as a former bowler?

Well, I think Stokes uses the new ball really well, doesn't he? He swings the ball, pitches it up, he bows up full of length. I mean, I agree with Michael Cast Cars is not an opening bowler. He's a workhorse who runs in. I mean, they like him because he bowls lots of overs. He just keeps running in, doesn't he? But you know, there's not enough consistency there to be an opening bowler. And I don't think I'm not doing this wrong way, but there's not the skill. It is not doing things with a ball that as a new ball bowler you use the new ball four, if you get what I mean, doesn't swing it doesn't seem it. He runs in, bangs it halfway down. That's. That's not, that's not skillful new ball bowling. I agree with both of them. Tongue is. It's a tongue in Atkinson.

We've also got to remember, you know, we had Broad and Anderson for many Years. Yeah, you know, so they kind of, they ate up a chunk of, of like six or seven years that we just. There you go. Stuart and Jimmy will do the job and you know, it's taken a little bit of time and we're still working out in English cricket who are new ball bowlers are. So it's not easy when you've got a younger, fresher set of bowlers. But you know, when you're in conditions like this and you're up against the team, you've got to get it right. You know, you have that little, little window of opportunity and you have to get it right. And there's been too many times on the tour where they've not quite got it right with the new ball.

Well, Australia had got it right with a new ball and they've got a champion new ball bowler and Mitchell Stark and did it again. Okay, figures, two for 23 and the others took more. But he it going, didn't he? The noise inside this stadium when start was bowling and taking out two of the first three wickets. Crawley was caught at slip for five and Ducket caught at mid on for two. What's it like as a bowler, Glenn, when you get deep into the series when you bowled a lot and you know, is it easy to keep going? I mean, he's still running in, isn't he bowling fast one ball, 146kph, I think in his, in his first over.

But he's, he's been incredible, hasn't he's played over 100 Test matches. You know, he's not a spring chicken anymore, but he's still running in bowling nearly. Yeah, between 145, 150k an hour, which is exceptional. And I think he knows his game better now. He's got better control in that. Yeah, in years gone by, he just hasn't had that control. He dragged one down leg side who push him really wide so he knows he's going really well. And the thing in England's favor today, there wasn't much swing. Could you imagine Mitchell Stark out there with swing as well? He would have been absolutely dangerous. So I think he just knows his game so well and he's had such a massive series and you know, you look at when England came here, you would have thought you would have been facing not only Stark, but Cummins, Hazelwood and Lyon in every Test. And you know, we've only got l only got Stark and that was the way in two of those tests. So yeah, he's.

Well, this is a frustration for Me that, you know, England are 3 nil down. They've. They've had a. An iffy day again. Australia haven't got their best team. Once again, Ben Stokes has won three out of four tosses, you know, so you've got to be honest and say England have had pretty much everything go their way in terms of everything.

Playing 2nd 11.

I know Joffre Arch has now gone back, but, you know, on this pitch, this, this attack was. Was good enough with the amount of movement, you know, Australia, it's harsh and wrong to say that they're Australia second because they're all good cricketers, but, you know, Australia haven't had their best team.

Out yet, and they've had one or two that have struggled in their lineup as well. I mean, Weatherall hasn't made a huge impact. Cameron Green hasn't had a great series, for example. Look, we're talking as if. Almost as if the game's over, as.

If, you know, the series is done.

I know the series is done, Glenn. I know that. Yeah. But we're talking almost as if the game is over.

It's not over yet, but.

Okay, so what's the. Push it forward? I mean, Australia are 46 runs ahead only, and they've got all 10 wickets.

They've got to bowl them out. They've got to get in there tomorrow and bowl them out and do so well, buy tea, I suppose, and, and then look to chase the runs down. I mean, this batting side could do that.

Well, the pitch will still do a bit tomorrow and maybe, you know, try to get it into day three. Whether, whether this pitch is going to flatten out at all. There'll be a bit of life in it.

Of all the test matches, I think this is England's best chance. Oh, because have we had this series? They are a good chasing team. This pitch may get better. India, last year I was here. This pitch got better, you know, on day one when Sammy Constance went out, that he was doing all sorts.

How does it get better? Just explain how it might get better.

Well, you've got to remember we've had. How many rollers have we had today? We've had a heavy one. We've probably had three heavy rollers already. There'll be another one tomorrow morning, you know, if Australia get bowled out by, you know, an hour to go towards tomorrow night, which is probably going to have to happen. Freeman twin, another heavy roller. And then on day three, you get another heavy roller. So I'm counting the heavy rollers to try and flatten it out. But that's the only way that England can win and the only way I say they've got hope is because this England side are a decent chasing side. They got close at the Adelaide Test a lot. I think Australia are clear favorites because, you know, they've got all the momentum of the series and they've got an incredible ball in attack. But this England side can chase and if it's a 280, 300 chase, that means the pitch has probably got a little bit better for batting tomorrow. And then England will have to knuckle down, someone will have to get 100. And of all the England sides that I've seen, this England side are very good at doing that. But it's the mental scars and the mental damage over the course of the first three games and the first innings here that there's, there's a lot of the players that will be struggling mentally, you know, and doubting themselves. And the one thing that you can't doubt is yourself when you're playing against this quality Australia bowling attack. So Australia favorites, but don't rule England out yet.

Okay. How do you see it? Glenn?

Yeah, no, agree with that. A lot depends on how things go tomorrow. England have to bowl well and put pressure back on this Australian batting lineup. So yeah, if Australia it's still batting tomorrow evening with, with wickets in hand, it's, it's not looking as good. But I think there's still plenty of life in this pitch. So the weather's slowly getting warmer which will have an impact on top of the rollers. So yeah, this, you know, it could get to the stage where England are batting in the fourth innings in the best batting conditions of the match. So yeah, the game's not over yet, but it's well on its way.

Australia 46 runs ahead.

The TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 live.

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Let's hear from the England camp. Josh Tung has been speaking to Henry Moran.

Well Josh, how on earth do you.

Begin to unpick that day?

It's obviously a crazy day of test match cricket, obviously winning in toss and bowling to bowl them out for 1/5.

Or whatever it was.

I thought as a bowling unit was outstanding. It's obviously a tricky pitch to bat on. They've obviously bowled well as well. But we come back tomorrow fighting. Talk to me about this surface because.

It does seem to be doing quite a lot.

Yeah, I think There was about 10 mil of grass on it this morning. Obviously that green tinge going through the middle and we just felt like that sort of. Well me personally, that fuller length where I mostly get my wickets was going to benefit me and the team. And yeah, we just tried to make sure we hit the pitch as hard as we could if we did get that fuller length. So we felt like if you got that just short of a length, just stuck in the pitch a tiny bit. So just being brave of your length but still hitting the pitch hard, matched.

Position, it's barely time to digest it.

But you're not out of this England.

No, not at all. They lead by what, 50? We come back refresh tonight, come back tomorrow morning, get a few quick polls and you never know we can get them three or four down in that first hour. Just what happened today So I think we just got to make sure we stick to what we did today and bring that tomorrow.

What was the chat between innings in terms of how things were going to be approached?

Was there a sense of being slightly.

Bolder and braver with the battings? It looked like that, yeah.

I think it depends on the individual, how they see what fits in that situation. I thought how Brookie batted was. Was very good on that pitch. Got valuable runs down there and obviously Gus at the end as well when I was batting with him. So I think just sort of judging when you're out there, see where your scoring options are and go from there. Some noise today. It's a record crowd for a cricket.

Match at the mcg. I mean, this is for you personally. Five dreams are made of this, aren't they?

Oh, yeah. To be in the Ashes series is amazing. Obviously, it was my first one last week in Adelaide, which I thought is incredible as well. It was 55,000 and now at Boxing Day, 93,000, I think it was. Sega. Five dreams make it come true. What about the noise around the ground and playing in this sort of atmosphere?

Because it's been a lot to take.

In for England on so many levels this tour. How do you compartmentalise your game, which you've got that going on all around you? I'm. I don't really listen to it all. There's the odd comments and stuff, but that sort of thrives me to do better and sort of show, show the crowd. And I feel like if you put in the hard work, make sure you bow the boards where you want to bowl and put pressure on the opposition, you're going to get your rewards and thankfully it happened today. What about the build up to this game? There's been a lot of noise around. Ben spoke about protecting the team. How's that been? Yeah, it's been good. We've been around everyone which are trying to fully focus on this game and making sure we get a win for England and then going on to Sydney.

Because that is now got to be the goal because there's a lot of people out here.

30,000 England fans have made the journey.

It's a huge commitment from them.

Yeah, they've been amazing all series, been to every single game, supporting us all the way when things haven't gone our way. But, yeah, credit to them. Mickey, keep making or staying here as well in Melbourne, supporting us today. So, yeah, we're doing it for the fans and everyone back at home. Well bowled today. Many thanks.

Cheers.

That's Josh Tung. Speaking to Henry Moran tung today with 5 for 45 from 11.2 overs. And when he bowls on the second day, he will be on a hat trick. Now, another bowler had an excellent day was Scott Boland. He loves it on this ground. He picked up a 3 for 30. He's been speaking to Corbyn Middlemass and the ABC radio team.

What a day for this man, Scott Boland.

So first he, he did it with.

The ball as he ran through England yet again, 3 for 30 off his nine overs.

And then he goes and puts the.

Pads on and opens up as the.

Night watchman in the second dig.

Scott, congratulations.

How do you sum up what on.

Earth we saw today here at the G?

Crazy day. Yeah, I didn't expect to be open about a Travis Head at the G, but nice one to tick off, I guess. Well, they always say about, you know, kids you dream of playing on Boxing Day.

Was this ever end of your consciousness.

At any stage thinking, I'm going to go out and open the batting on Boxing Day. When I was running off, I knew I was opening the batting. I thought, oh, geez, I couldn't get a king pair all in the same day.

The wicket. Let's talk about the wicket. It obviously had a fair bit in day one.

Yeah, it did. I think probably the. The weather we've had the last three days has been 17 degrees. It's not really good for. For cricket wickets, as you'd know.

Boof.

But I think being sent in, obviously we want more than 150, but we sort of fell over a little bit towards the end. But I think the way we started with the ball was spot on. I think we pitched it up, we got the ball in the area. Brook tried to take us on and we set some different fields. It sometimes feels chaotic, chaotic when he's batting because he can hit to. He tries to put the pressure so much on you that you sort of. Sometimes you lose what you're trying to do. But now, four, four games into the series, we're sort of pretty clear on how we want to bowl when guys are going like that.

Yeah, it looks like it.

Your plans are perfect.

You're almost inside his head.

He just wants to try something different to take you out of that comfort zone.

So all the bowlers are just saying, right, that's what we're doing. Steve Smith or Paddy Cummins say, we'll have a deep mid off or a deep cover.

Yeah, I think we sort of worked out maybe second innings from Perth that deep mid off and Deep point, sort of keep him a little bit stiller and then when the wicket's a little bit flatter, there's not as much bounce. We can get Kez up to the stumps. His hands are amazing up there. So even feel like when we're bowling 7 or 8 meters and trying to hit his belly button, Kez is going to catch it. So we've got full trust in him. Does it feel like a 20 wicket day to you from a looking at.

That service to us from up in the commentary box, it looks decent. Looks like there was some seam movement.

But it didn't feel like a 20 wicket day.

Yeah, I know we haven't seen 20 wickets too often here. We played Shield games years ago, we didn't get 20 wickets for the whole four days. It's a nice change to that.

The thing for me, it, for me, I'm a little bit different this being a bowler, but I see it go up. It went up a little bit today.

Is it indentations in the pitch?

No, it looks really good. That's the one thing I went out to went to look at at lunch to see if there was any divots. There may be the odd sort of grassy divot, not like a full indentation of the pitch. So I think when you see those indentations and pitch, you know it's going to get harder to bat as the game goes on. But there's not really too many of them.

Was it two pace?

I only faced seven balls but Magnificent seven balls. By the way, have you ever had.

A reception like that?

I know you took six for 70.

Or one day, but felt like it.

Was even more orcus tonight.

Oh yeah, like as I said before, me and he were walking at the race and he's like, how good is this open? The batting is best mates at the G, so pretty special.

And get down tomorrow morning, get here.

Early and say, smithy Marus, I'm opening. I want throw downs from different for an hour.

You get first.

Scott.

We'll let you get out of the cold. Appreciate your time.

Thanks, Scotty.

That's Scott Boland talking to the ABC radio team. He had another remarkable day here at the mcg and he'll be back to continuing his opening partnership with Travis Head tomorrow morning. I bet he didn't expect to be hearing that at the start of the day's play. Okay, Andy Zaltzman is with me for the statistical roundup of the day. And as ever in this series, there's plenty to talk about. What's mainly Caught your eye today?

Well, I don't think anyone expected after the first day in Perth that we'd see even more wickets on the first day of one of the subsequent Tests. But 20 wickets on the first day, the most on the first day of an Ashes Test since 1909. I make it when there was a 20 wicket first day and the joint most then since 1902 when there were 25 wickets on the first day. On this, on this ground it's only the ninth Test in history and there've been over 2,600 Tests in which the third innings began on day one. Just the second since 1951 and the fourth since 1902. The two first innings combined, it's the seventh shortest combined first innings in Test history. So that puts in in context Australia all out in 45.2 overs, England 29.5 overs. Before we get on to, to England's with with the bat, Australia's innings, 45.2 is the joint, joint third shortest innings against England in this country in years. Exactly the same number of overs as they faced in Perth at the start of this series. And it was their fourth shortest first innings at the MCG since 1902. Josh Tung, his third five wicket hall in just eight Tests. He's now taken 41 wickets in his first eight Tests. That's the most by an England player in the first eight tests of a career in men's Test cricket since Ken Higgs in the 1960s. Even better than Ian Bothsom's pyrotechnic start to his career in the late 1970s. He's taken 15 wickets in his three Ashes Tests. But then it all went wrong after that. It was the lowest score, 110 all out and the shortest innings since England were skittled here four years ago for 68 in under 28 overs. So that's the lowest and shortest innings of the basball era. They were four down for 16, which is the ninth worst score for England at the fall of their fourth wick in any test innings and their worst of this millennium and their worst against Australia since 1904, they had eight single figure stands. The 10th wicket put on a heroic 19. To the extent where I actually pointed out when they'd reached double figures, they brought up the 10 partnership. It's only the third time against Australia they've had eight single figure partnerships in one innings since 1888. One was at Hobart in the fourth innings as they capitulated at the end of the last tour and the other was the first innings of Don Bradman's last Test in 1948, the is England's 14th shortest innings ever in Test at 29.5 overs, albeit better than their last. It's the best of their last two innings in Melbourne, so let's cling to that. Scott Boland at one point, having taken six for seven in four overs in the second innings of his debut four years ago, then took three wickets in his first six overs, who had nine wickets in his last 10 overs against England on this ground at one point was England's sixth shortest first innings ever. But here's something to cling to, Simon. The last two occasions England have been bowled out in under 30 overs in their first innings, they've won the Test both times, both in 2019, one against Ireland at Lords and they were skittled on the first morning. And the Ben Stokes Headingley miracle match, they were all out for 67 in under 30 overs in that one, so they've got a very good record in recent years when they've been skittled in under 30 overs. In the first innings. England's top four totaled eight five for Crawley, two for Ducat, one for Bethel and a second first innings duck of the series for Root. That eight runs is the fourth worst performance by an England top four in Test history and their second worst since since 1904. And the early damage by Mitchell Stark now 24 wickets in the series. One more will be his the most in a series of his Test career and it's the third time in the four Tests played that he's taken two or more wickets in his opening spell of the first innings of the Test. So he has had a major series.

He's been magnificent. Mitchell Stark. Thanks very much Andy. You can watch clips on the BBC Sport website and app now with full highlights on BBC iPlayer. Also on iplayer, look out for the TMS Ashes debrief with Alex Hartley for all our content on BBC Sounds, just search Ashes. We're back on air at 11pm tonight.

You're listening to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 live.

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