The No Balls Cricket Podcast

The one thing about BazBall is that it does not do boring. Even in a run-fest that turned into only the 2nd draw of Ben Stokes's captaincy, the man found a way to make the Test memorable.The handshake that wasn't stole all the headlines, with England pleading to go off on Day 5 after failing to take any wickets for 2 sessions, and Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar on the cusp of centuries. And thus BegBall was born, and a light was shone on the petulance lurking underneath the bombast of the McCullum-Stokes era. Yes, this is an episode full of ranting. We did also discuss the cricket.

We went away for a short while, and an entire era changed. South Africa won a trophy, Australia LOST A FINAL, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma retired, Shubman Gill became Test captain, all in the time since we last recorded. Unfortunately, BazBollocks is still here. And still tripping up India occasionally. True to form we are back as soon as India's Test team is back in action, though not in time for the actual start of the England tour. Instead we review the topsy-turvy first Test and look ahead to the rest of the series...which we are not hopeful about. Join us in our cheery doom and gloom!

There was no repeat of the last miracle at the Gabba, but India not losing that Test might be its own version of a miracle, helped by the rain gods and a rollicking innings from "bowling all-rounder" Akash Deep. Given the state of India's batting, he might get a promotion to bat in the top 7 at this rate. The Test ended up being more notable for what happened off the pitch, with one of India's greatest-ever cricketers bidding farewell to international cricket. We pay tribute to Ashwin, and look ahead to the rest of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Just how powerful are the BCCI and Jay Shah? That question was important enough to ask even when we had a magnificent India win to review. Would you put it past the new ICC president to engage in some destabilizing of Pakistan that had nothing to do with cricket just to come up with a less controversial reason to move the Champions Trophy out of the PCB's home base? Oh, and there was that Test win. We talked a bit about that, but it can really be boiled down to this: Jasprit Bumrah is a genius. Also, this entire episode features a silent but pretty cool guest: a dental assistant robot, dubbed TOOTH-E, fresh off of helping Sid do wild stuff in Aditya's mouth. No, it doesn't do cricket analysis, but it's part of the NBC family now.

Our esteemed podcast has managed to do something Jonny Bairstow wasn't able to do during England's tour of India: get to 50. In a series full of milestones – including a 100th Test for Jonny himself, along with Stokes and Ashwin – we've brought up this special one of our own. So we paid homage (to ourselves) in a few different ways: taking a trip down memory lane, and even bringing out an OG pod member from before our video days. And as a bonus, the cricket gave us enough reason to celebrate, and engage in one of our favorite pasttimes yet again, twisting the knife into England as BazBollocks was sent home packing.

If you suffer your worst defeat on the pitch in 90 years, is there any way you can still claim moral victory? According to us, there isn't, but we think somehow England could still manage it even after a 434-run loss. Thanks to the magnitude of India's victory, and some interesting decisions from the BazBollocks strategy brain trust, we had a lot to talk about on this one, so a bit of a longer episode than usual. We just love sticking the knife into England when we get the chance.

So about those 5-0 and 4-0 predictions from our podcast... We look back on a wild first Test and how exactly England pulled off the "Heist of Hyderabad". How do India turn things around? Meanwhile, West Indies pulled off a heist of their own in Australia and we have more updates from the life of Shoaib Malik.

We put it off for as long as we could, but finally, here we are, sucking it up and dealing with our loss. By which we mean, of course, India's loss at the men's ODI World Cup final. What happened, who can we yell at for it (BCCI), and where do we go from here? In the middle of all that, of course, cricket never stops, so we take a look at what's next for India and everyone else.

It's time to preview the semifinals. India get a chance to stare down the demons of 2019 and New Zealand, and South Africa have semifinal ghosts of their own to exorcise against Australia. We're in crunch time at the World Cup...or should that be crispy time, Ramiz Raja?

Having come back after a long time, we've decided that we need to freshen this podcast up by doing something we didn't know we're capable of: sounding smart. So this pod has Siddhant busting out stats, Aditya talking about "process-based analysis", and...a lot of shit-talking about the teams we like talking shit about, still, because we can't not do that. But we did smart analysis too. We think. We'll let you decide.

This may or may not be the last episode of No Balls Cricket. Are we being dramatic and dumb? Would anyone listening to us think we're capable of such behavior? (Don't answer that.) What exactly we mean by that, is revealed in the episode, where we also discuss Sid's cricket "escapades", Ashwin's latest tactical controversy, and of course, more of our favorite pastime...dunking on England cricket. Welcome back! As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube. No Balls Cricket: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts Aditya: Twitter Siddhant: Twitter

We mentioned last time that, in true No Balls Cricket fashion, we were releasing a preview episode just in time for the start of a tournament or series. Well, hold that thought. We may have gotten the Women's World Cup preview out ahead of the tournament starting (or rather, on the day it started, and after the first match had begun), but we have outdone ourselves with the next one: our preview of the three men's Test series going on across the world simultaneously. With the first Test over in two of those series. In fairness, it's not entirely our fault. Some blame lies with Sri Lanka, too. If they had put up a better fight in the first Test against India, this episode would be going out at the end of the match, rather than two days after it had already ended. Maybe India need to follow the lead of their neighbors, as Pakistan prepared an absolute road for the first Test against Australia, making sure it lasts all five days. (Getting a result, seemingly not as important.) At least the West Indies vs England series hasn't started yet. (It's about six hours away at the time this episode's releasing.) Anyway, without further ado, here's our preview of all three series as we look forward to an exciting month for Test cricket. As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube. No Balls Cricket: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts Aditya: Twitter Siddhant: Twitter

For those of you who are regular listeners, you know we have a long-standing joke about being "respected" journalists. Aditya has worked in sports content for most of his career, which has included some journalistic work, and Sid...well, Sid is a dentist/surgeon but recently interviewed a cricketing legend, so we'll give him his due there. It's clear how much we love this particular running gag. So imagine our delight when our exact phrasing – "respected" journalist, with the respected part meant completely sarcastically – found its way into the tweet of an international cricketer. See for yourself: https://twitter.com/Wriddhipops/status/1495076230713917441  We would like to extend an invite to Wriddhiman Saha to join us on the podcast whenever he feels like it and deems us worthy of interviewing him. In the meantime, in our latest episode, Sid and Aditya have much to say about cricket media in India, not to mention summing up all the cricketing action from around the world – including a few incidents that have done our pod name proud. As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube. And if you haven't watched either part of our Mohinder Amarnath interview, be sure to check it out on whichever platform you're using! Links: Joy Bhattacharjya's thread on Indian cricket journalism: https://twitter.com/joybhattacharj/status/1496011738986295296 Mitchell Starc's no ball: https://twitter.com/SportsJOE_UK/status/1493526170670968832 James Faulkner's tantrum: https://twitter.com/ESPNcricinfo/status/1495023462393561094 Spirit of cricket: https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1493904109568765952 No Balls Cricket: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts Aditya: Twitter Siddhant: Twitter