Rabbit pie: Why England’s Tongue is so good against tailenders

It’s difficult to do tail cleaning, but it’s still a bit of an art.

Believe me, this came from a bowler who had to bowl in both directions when Tino Best of the West Indies put together a Test-match 95 at Edgbaston in 2012.

As incredible as it was, England won the previous week’s Test in Headingley, but India lost in two ways.

First of all, India’s catch rate was subpar, as was their tact with keeping their head down. England received 200 runs in reprieve from the game due to the errors.

Second, there was absolutely no resistance from the lower order in India.

Tongue gave a stunning performance.

You want to be aggressive, intimidating, and ruthless when you’re a tailgearer.

In team meetings, we used to say “kill the tail” and remind each other to “kill the tail” to prevent the opposing tail from waging.

The tailender needs to know when you use your short ball, but you want to be back to a good length as soon as you realize the short ball has done its job of making sure the batter isn’t interested in moving forward.

A tailender immediately finds the awkward angle of the tongue offensive. You believe that you will be hit in the ribs by everything.

He took the innings’ seventh, eighth, and ninth wickets with a three-wicket maiden in the second one. It was a perfect illustration of how to start off the tail before moving on.

Number eight Shardul Thakur threw a full-agent swinger to the ground first. After Jamie Smith gloved his hand in pain after receiving a heavy, awkward ball, Mohammad Siraj was followed by a limp, awkward ball that caused Siraj to walk off.

Two balls later, Jasprit Bumrah backped and fired a powerful shot at one from the middle of his stump, which was almost certainly the result of what Bumrah watched and sat through while Siraj was batting.

As a tailwatcher sat there and observed a person’s aggressive behavior, it was horrible.

Everyone is fair game now that everyone is safe thanks to helmets, padding, and the ability to practice better. You’re acutely aware that you’ll be asked to perform the same when you have the ball in your hand, especially when you’re doing it when you’re walking out there.

You can’t take your eyes off the opposition captain’s next bowling game because your palms are sweating and you need to use the restroom every five minutes.

In a 2018 County Championship game, I hit Jofra Archer in the head.

I was the first to bat when I realized who would have the ball in his hand.

The first ball I faced from him squeezed into my bat handle in front of my face, and my right hand’s index finger is still swollen from that point. He gave me the next ball for nothing.

A dressing room’s wagging tail also has a significant psychological boost.

You can see the frustration in the opposition as they toss out the last few wickets, and it helps to lighten the mood. It also helps players feel confident that the momentum is in their favor.

The top order batters’ minds are distracted from the following innings’ opening overs, which can cause chaos if the tail really wags.

In the previous World Test Championship cycle, England averaged 87.04 after the sixth wicket fell. The opposition did so in that time.

That is a significant 50.24-run swing across a Test with New Zealand scoring the best in the world and conceding an average of 61.92 on average.

Bring your mind to Australia’s first Ashes Test victory at Edgbaston in 2023, which they won by two wickets.

In a nightwatchman’s chase of 288, Scott Boland scored 20 from 40 balls, Pat Cummins, who was 73, and Nathan Lyon, who had 28 balls unbeaten, scored 20.

The game was lost in the second innings because of the Stokes declaration, which was more widely touted on day one.

England’s success in this series and the Ashes in the winter will depend on it. He has demonstrated his abilities, Tongue has demonstrated. Carse, Archer, or Gus Atkinson might do it as well.