Test Match Special - No Balls: Headingley, happiness on-field & a Hartley head injury

Episode Date: August 9, 2025

Kate Cross & Alex Hartley convene in a hotel room the morning after Kate’s winning start in The Hundred with the Northern Superchargers. Should there be substitutes in cricket, what would Alex call a pub if she opened one, and what loud bang what Crossy up in the middle of the night?How to get in touch: Email - [e-mail] Text - 81111 WhatsApp - 0330 123 1826 Start your message with 'NOBALLS'

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She does. She also abuses me on social media. But don't worry, we beep it out. See, your kids can listen. And Grandma Jean. Cross. I'm doing round the wicked. Oh, that's... Boulder! Boulder! Laving a ball alone, Litchfield. I think it's the wobble ball.

And it just nips back. It jags back. It's the nipbacker. That is a beauty from Kate Cross. An absolute seed. That is a beauty from Cross. Hello and welcome back to No Balls of Cricket podcast for me Kate Cross, you Alex Hartley and we're together! We're in person. We're in person.

We are a tech disclaimer. We're in bed. You came over to commentate on the Superchargers game last night. We went out for a little drink and now we woke up together. Yeah. Well, you were like, come stay with me. I've got too bad. I got in bed last night.

I was like, this is so better than a budge up. Perfect, isn't it? Yeah. No, top and tail in here. No, yeah, I came to watch. How are you? Yeah, I'm good. I'm good.

The 100 started now, and this is where I'll do another podcast in a week. I'll be like, oh, the 100's finished. It goes so quickly now. But I'm glad it started. Safe for Chargers. On the board. On the board. Top of the table.

We, oh, top of the league. We play one game. Yeah. Play one game, top of the league, plus two net run rate. Same, same as last year. No. You started well, finished badly. No, we started badly last year.

Did you? We lost then, Drew. Do you remember? Drew to Southern Brave was a tie. I don't remember. I got two off the last ball I was batting. Do you not remember? No. Maybe that wasn't the game you came to watch them.

No, can't it be. Can't have been. You bowed so nicely yesterday, though. Thank you. You didn't go for a run in your first five, did you? No, well, Tammy runs at me, doesn't she? So sometimes I always just think, if bat has a run in, at you in the first over it's probably good for me because yeah i mean she she did them

whack me for the biggest six of the day but um that's cricket isn't it a big one that you got to take the roof with the smooth sometimes so you go for no runs you go for 10 runs it happens how was it being like that it's nice yeah it's one of that the hundred is one of them where the build up to it never really preps you for what the tournament is because like we played a warm game and well we played two warm up games on tuesday we're at a club ground in leeds like obviously absolutely fine but then when you play You're headingly in front of 7,000 people, and there's music and lights. It just, nothing basically prepares you until that first ball is bold.

Yeah. I've actually got a bonus pick with the northern crowds. Okay. Can people start to, look, we can't have lords outdoing, headingly and Old Trappard. What's that about? Well, is it? Because it's the capital city. All people are.

Well, we told somebody at Birmingham was the capital city of the UK last night. He really didn't like that. He was a real, real strong southerner. Yeah. So I was just like, I've actually never been to London. and I do believe that Birmingham should be the capital city because it's just got more than London has to offer and he got really angry.

He looked to you, he was like, are you mad? Yeah, angry. Anyway, that's the kind of stuff we do on a nine hours, isn't it? We met a podcast fan last night, didn't we? Yes. He was so, so, in his own words, he fangold us. Yeah, I'm so sorry, can I ever butcher? Yeah.

Can I have another picture? What was his, Mrs. called? Sarah. Sarah. Yeah, so shout out to Sarah because she's a huge podcast fan. And, well, we sent her a little video, didn't we last night? Can't remember his name. Elliot.

David. Oh, close. Dave. Dave. Dave and Sarah. Lovely to meet you, Dave. How are you? Good, really good.

The 100 started. I'm on the carousel. Is that the right? Yeah. On the right on the... Treadmill. No, what's the thing that hamsters go around in? Hamster wheel.

Yeah, on the Hamster wheel. On the Hamster wheel. I'm on Big Ben. I'm just going round, around, around. You know, Big Ben, honestly, London's rubbish. Get to Birmingham. You don't need to see a big hamper. And also, Big Ben's a massive clock.

Birmingham has that bull. That's actually quite impressive. Yeah, from the Commonwealth Games. Anyway, side note, I'm actually very good, thank you. You sound it. Do I sound croaky? It's because you got back to the room after being an athlete and going to breakfast and they were still sat in the dark.

That does. Probably sums up very nicely. But yeah, I've done loads, TV, Heavenly Radio, off to Cardiff today. Nice. That's just where it is. It's the big Ben. It's the big Ben of the great world. It is.

But I came back to your room last night with a McDonald's thing in my hand because not an athlete. And I came back and I was looking around your room, you've got protein bars, you've got creatine, you've got four water bottles, scoff in a big Mac. Like, what is this? This is the 100L. You've got to stay at the top. He came to complete.

Yeah. We've had fun, haven't we? Yeah. To start the 100. So, have you got anything on your sticky note? Yeah. Go on, I have. I've got one.

For last night, middle of the night, Alex gets up to go for a week. Oh, my God. I've got a lump on my head. And then I just have a massive bang. That's like, you're like, oh, that's not the toilet. And basically, you turn left. to go into the bathroom but just beyond that there's this little cave where the mirror

is and you just want to stay into the mirror oh i was like why put that there oh this is not the biggest bang i ever heard because when you're in the room that you don't really know and everyone will do this you feel with your hands so i felt a gap because i walked into it it was a gap for my hands not my not big enough for me it is just the mirror um yeah so that That was a good, no wonder you've got old croaky voice. Probably Comcast. They've got croaky voice and bang my head. I tell you who is Comcast.

Sue Redfern. Oh my God. You're right? Well, I don't know. I didn't know anything had happened and then you obviously message saying, oh, you're all right Sue. And then she was on field for us yesterday. I was like, what happened?

They stole me. She's like got hit right in the temple, right here. I was like, why are you here, then what you're doing? Because she loves cricket and she's fine. Oh, I'm quite behind here because mine says that the ladybirds pause play at the test match. That's a while about that one, isn't it? I've got... There's some reason I've got written down 56 minutes.

I don't know what that is. That could be anything. It could literally be anything. Oh, you've been given some nice bracelets again. That was really nice. So, this is really sweet. In fact, bones pit with the northern crowds. Well, headingly crowd.

In fact, no, all crowds. Why do kids think it's okay to ask you for all your property? Yeah, it's odd, isn't it? One boy was like, can I have your bat? I was like, no, you know you can't have my bat? And then he was like, can I have your sunglasses? I was like, how much would you give me in return for my sunglasses? You went 10P?

I was like, do you think my sonies are not worth more than 10P? And he was like, no. I was like, well, I'm not going to give you my sonnies because I need them. And then obviously you then get a bit of a bug bear with these kids, but you're putting a smile, you know, sign in and putting a smile on. And then one kid was like, can I, and I was like, oh, here we go. And she just went, can I have a hug? I was like, oh, yeah, come in, yeah, of course you can. Yeah, hugs are free.

What do I get in return? Tempe? 10-beat. Give me 10-T, you can have a hog. Apparently it's a real big issue in the WSL. Oh, really? Yeah, like people making signs being like, can I have a shirt and then be annoyed when they don't get a shirt? And also, I don't think people understand.

We don't have unlimited kit. Yeah. Like, I've got two shirts for this tournament. I've got one hat. So I'm not going to give my hat away because then I'll get some burn. Can I have a shirt? Do you want a shirt? Your training's up.

I actually was a bit torn watching yesterday, because obviously it was a Welsh fire. I think I think I was supporting you. Superchargers fan? No, no, no, no. A purple, crossy and purple fan. You've always been that. Yeah, but I wasn't bothered by the Welsh fire, if that makes sense. Obviously, I want my friends to do well, but are you clear, I was just like, up the superchargers?

Yeah. We actually, talking a bit more about cricket, we started the tournament with the same team. we finished it with last year and I think we'll be the only team that do that this year. Did you really? Yeah. We've had no changes.

We've brought in Grace Potts and Catherine Frazier. They're the only two that I haven't been around. So he's same starting 11. Same starting 11 years. How good is your team though? It does feel like we've got a good team.

It's only when you look yesterday that you're like, wow. What I loved about yesterday was just how calm everyone looked. But I think there is that element of it was the same team. There was no one. like nervous on debut you've obviously got nervous because it's first game of the tournament but

you've not really got the like oh where should I field what am I doing who's bowling now like we just we have this like system where we know that like Belsie feels at mid on if she's bowling I go to mid on and then ADR comes into mid-up like we just know our system so can I ask a question that you might not know the answer to it yeah why were the boundaries the same size as the men's I liked it did you yeah well Tammy still hit me for sex but I think that's good I don't necessarily think it's bad I just was wondering if that was a plan I don't think we spoke about

well we might the leadership team Mike spoke about it but I've not heard anything but genuinely the boundaries went back 45 centimetres to the men well like when I watched I was watching our game from the balcony I was like they actually physically can't push the roads out much further for the men

because of the LED lights and I think you've got to have the rope within two metres or something like that but so yeah I was thinking we're obviously tactically playing on a big pitch. But I don't mind. I think T20's where you can run twos is really important.

Yeah, it is, to be fair. And your six hitters, or these six hitters in the game are still going to be six years, no matter what. And obviously in the men's game, you can miss hit a ball and it go for six, whereas I think in the women's game now, if we played on the similar boundaries to the men, you miss hit a ball and you're out, rather than miss hitting it for six.

Yeah. What would you rather miss hit for six? You would hit miss hit six. What you're saying? What you're saying? You would want to miss hit at six, but you wouldn't want to be mishit for six. No, it's rubbish trying to get a mishit for six. Yeah, that's what I meant.

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girls have started pretty well, I think, the first game. Well, Manchester. And well, if I had to be fair, but... But you and the first game? But as you know, it feels like the women's, like it's been a bit more high-scoring. There was a low-scoring thriller in the men's game at Manchester. Yeah, that was the first game was war game, wasn't it? We need the men's comp to get a bit better.

Just ignite a bit. Yeah, yeah. Last night felt good though. It felt like... Yeah, it felt all right, didn't it? Yeah, it felt all right. I, like, obviously now we've seen London Spirit men. They've had a rebrand, new coach, new captain.

Yeah. Same results. Yeah. Or result. I don't want to say they've been rubbish when they've only played one game. Manchester, new team, same result, women. I feel like Manchester just look exactly the same as they have every year. But then they've, like, they've seen Mili Kerr, and you know she were with to probably half of the games.

So we play eight games in the tournament. She'll probably win four of them for her team with battle balls. So I do feel like sometimes, this is what I mean about was starting with the same 11. and like sometimes you need a game or two to get into it and then by then you go so quick you're like oh if we'd have started a bit quicker we'd have probably done well but it's 100 anything happens

literally literally do you know what I don't or what I was saying to you and Hen Two Fingers was our game last night and we had a nice catcher yeah Two fingers if you're playing a drinking game Throwback Throwback

And I was saying to you too last night that the thing that you forget in the 100 when you, because if you're chasing, when you're looking at the scoreboard, it never actually tells you your score. It tells you what you need off how many balls. So I was really quite tricked yesterday because Welsh fire needed maybe 70 off 53 balls. It's like, you know, not neck and neck, but you know what I mean? It's still doable.

And I think they were about four or five down at this point. But then I looked at the actual score and they were like 40 for five. Yeah. And I was like, oh, we're in a really strong position here. So you kind of lose sight a little bit of it because of the. the way the scoreboard is. Yeah, because you look at... Yeah.

It's odd, isn't it? I think on the telly, I did exactly the same yesterday, and I was like, where's the actual score? Yeah. And it's on the end. Yeah. It is there. You've just got to look for it,

because obviously they've tried to simplify it. I made it more complicated. I don't like the graphics this year. Yeah, I do. I prefer them. I don't. See, that's like opinions. That is an opinion, yeah.

So you like the ones up the size? I liked it because it was like a tower block. I think if I hadn't watched cricket, I'd just be able to see it moving up and down and be like, I understand what's going on. Oh, you don't understand. Welsh fire and need 53 off of 72. Yeah, but it's not built.

It's like, there's a, like, make it visual. You know I'm a visual learner. And then I'm rubbish at mine. Oh, my God, yesterday. It was 78 balls to go. And I was like, right, 12 balls left. 78 balls gone. I was like, 12 balls left, Welsh fire.

could do with two a ball. Scott Rood was like, yeah, 12 balls left. They're like five minutes later. He's like, 22 balls left. Hey, you've made up a nice pub with Scott, haven't you? Yeah, me, Scott and Henry on air yesterday. I was like talking about wanting to buy a franchise and what we'd call it.

And everyone was like, you should call it Lancashire Lighting, not lightning because of the tower bomb. And I was like, only employee tall cricketers. Okay. So like, Tall. Tall. Josh Hall, Josh Hall, two metre, meek. Meeks.

Belly, belly, not tall enough. Oh, not tall enough. I want tall, tall, tall. Anyway, I was like, I'm not going to be able to afford a cricket team. This is my hypothetical, whatever. And then I was like, actually, hypothetically, I want a pub. And I'm going to call it the slug of mullet. Because I was looking at Riley Meredith, and I looked and I said,

he's got a proper slug of mullet with the moustache and the mullet. And I was like, that's my pub. That's the pub name. That's great. And you said that you'd give discount to northerners because it's going to be in the south. It's going to be in London, because I think there's most Flux and Mullets. Why are you doing Birmingham?

I should do it. Capital City. Castle, the UK, Birmingham. I'm not sure I've ever seen a slug and mullet there, though. But have you spent enough time there to know? Maybe you'll attract the slugs and mullets. Well, yeah, half-priced drinks for slugs and mullets. And what happens if it's only, if you only have a slug or, what about women?

What are you doing here? You can have a slug and a mullet. To be fair, we both got to do it. I'm not done my moustache for a while. All right, half-price drinks for a little. And I will welcome any AFL players any time. Okay. All right.

So the slug and mullet. Yeah. We did have a dream on time to open a coffee shop, but maybe we do a pub. We do morgues and billings. Yeah, but the thing is, like, pubs are actually like, will die in, aren't they? Well, not if you do it well.

Yeah, true. Wait, the slug and mullet. The slug and mullet. Get in touch with those. Let us know if you've come to the slug and mullet. Yeah, I reckon it took one person to tell us we should start a podcast. Yeah.

And we did it. It's going to take one person to text us in on. Yeah, I'm just trying to find the 8-1-1-1-9. No, that's the Radio 1 number. Don't text Radio 1. 8-1-1-1-8-1-8-1-1.

8-1-1-1. Jack's laughing at us, just getting the Google Doc up. And you can email us on. Oh, forgot about that one. Throwback. Noblespodcast at BBC.co.com. Noblespodcast.com.com.com. It's so good. They sell it twice. Make sure if you're texting us,

on 8-1-1-1. You start a message with nobles, all capital letters and all one word. We've got a WhatsApp as well. That's complicated. 0-3-0-123-1826. Right, we've had some emails. Who do you want to go upstairs with? Oh, who was your own player? Yesterday. Yeah. Sue and Jack. Jack. What's he called? Jack Shantry? Jack Shantry. I think we've not been upstairs with Jack. No. Oh, funny. He's been a... He's been unparying a while.

Yeah, yes. Right. Jack, here we go. First time for everything. So Jen emails Why does cricket not allow injured players to be fully substituted People pay good money to go and watch a full team battle it out in an exciting series I just don't think they should be substitutes I really don't I think I understand the chat around it in test cricket

Because obviously five days is a long time to be missing Someone who has a proper role in the team But it's part of the game It is part of the game My worry if you brought subs in would be that people would find ways of being injured being injured changing things like can can you prove that your hamstrings saw without a scam yeah you're not going to get a scam during a test match like michael vaughan's got a big thing on like clear and obvious injury so like chris waltz it's clear

and and steve smith finger yeah and uh pank you know broke his foot clear and obvious but I think that also adds to the excitement. How exciting was it that England didn't have an extra batter? They only had 10 and then Chris Wokes comes out with his sling. And then tactically, that changed everything for Gus Atkinson because he knew that he had to do it all. So it is part of the game, I get that. But I do wonder if maybe with the obvious ones where like Green Whistle comes out.

Yeah. But you're allowed a substitution for concussion, aren't you? And you can replace someone there. That's like medically, like concussion's different, isn't it? Yeah. Jack says, what if you could select your one substitute pre-game? See, this is now, for me, getting a bit IPL with the subs, and then someone's in the team and they look at the pitch

and something doesn't play the same, and then they need someone to go out and hit it, and they bring someone in. I don't, I don't, it's not for me, I don't think. No, I don't think it's for me. I think it adds to it. It's part of the game, especially test cricket. Like, you've got to be fit, you've got to be robust.

You've got to get through it. And that's, like, Jen, on the email, just saying, like, people, pay good money to go and watch full teams battle it out. What, if you go and watch football games, someone gets sent off in the first 10 minutes? Like, you're watching 10 players, so, and that's because they did a bad thing, not because they hurt themselves. It's very true, so true. Niceest man in cricket, though.

Chris, so I'm commentating with him today. Oh, yeah, please do. Just don't touch his shoulder. Kieran has been in touch. At the end of the fifth test, there was chat about Shugman Gill's tactics for two overs, when he did not bring the field in on Atkinson's final walk. Do you think it was sportsmanship to not bowl at Wokes or England being so close to chasing?

Would either of you do the same in that situation? I had a bold at Wokes. I think this Indian team would definitely have bowled at Wokes. I think at that point you just, like a boundary, what do we need, 17 to win, Ossetka, a boundary can kill you and give England momentum. So I think they were probably just thinking we'd rather... I think England won by like nine runs in the end or something.

England lost. That's what meant. India won by nine runs in the end. Absolutely, you have to bowl at Chris Wolkes. Like, if he's putting himself in that situation to go out there and bat, you've got to then do your job as a bowler. What would you have bowed first? Everyone would have done, wouldn't it?

And that's, see, everyone's like saying what a nice man he is, but they would have bounced? Would you have bounced it? You'd have to. Yeah, exactly. You have to bowl short because he's going to just whacked it away. You could have about left-handed though, wasn't he? Yeah.

I sort of wanted him to hit the winning runs anyway with this conversation. That had been funny. Okay, we've had an email here from Anaya, lovely name. Hi Kate and Alex. Long time, Lister. You think she's going to be on eBay? Long time list. Long time Lister, but emailing for the first time.

I would like to ask, how do you remain calm and composed under pressure? I love Smriti and how she's always smiling on the pitch. I imagine it's quite difficult with the world watching. Oh, it is something that you do get used to, don't you? Like you get used to the crowds, you get used to the pressure, but you also have either own, I used to have my own little routines. Yeah. Like just take a breath, yeah. I think when you're in the moment and you're either delivering a ball or you're batting, you don't hear or see the crowd.

Yeah. You don't think about the TV. You don't think about anything else. I think it's more when you field in. So I remember the test match at Trump Bridge when Filer was bowling and the crowd was given of the big slow clap and stuff. I remember being like, this is so cool, like, how good's this sound? But then Filer didn't know, like, she wasn't really fully aware, but that was going on. She obviously knew she was getting the crowd going and she was bowling quick and stuff, but she wasn't...

You don't hear it. Yeah, she wasn't aware of it like I was as a fielder. So I think sometimes when you're actually physically in the moment and it's you versus the bowler or batter, like, you're almost, yeah, like you said, you just kind of go back to what you know. You do, you just sort of block out, no, he's like, I remember someone asking me like, what's it like? playing in front of 30,000 people, I was like, the same. Yeah. Because obviously, I was nervous beforehand, but then you just block it out. Yeah.

And when you take a wicket, obviously, the 100 is good example of it. The crowd does line up and you hear it, but I've never, at any point, taking a wicket and gone, this crowd, I've always just been like, where am I teammates, who do I celebrate with? So you just, I think you're just so engulfed in the moment. But how do you coat with pressure? Not very well at the minute, eventually. You've got to have robust routines

and you've got to know that your prep has got you to that point. Yeah. Do you know what? Because baton's obviously not my strong suit. I sometimes think, like, if I had to go and face Shubman Gill. Didn't have to face Shubmergill yesterday. Shabnamishma. Chabna Mishvah, if I went out and faced Chabs yesterday,

what I would have done when I got to the crease was take my mark and then I would have gone, you faced quicker people slinging at you in the net. Oh, yeah. So treat it like you've got someone coming in slinging at you, and that's how my brain works. So I almost try and take the pressure of the moment away from what's actually happening. See, bowling, I'd be like, right, you're the best, you've got this. Brian, I'd be like, ha, ha, just get in the way of it.

And also, there's so many times where I go and take my guard and I'm shaking so much. I'm like, I really hope the cameras can't see that I'm shaking. Yeah, because like the, yeah, because you're that nervous. I used to get that. I used to get it when I'd taken a catch as well. Yeah. And like the adrenaline. I feel like, I got on my phone.

Why am I shaking? So weird. It's a funny game for that cricket, isn't it? Because it's not like, I imagine like football, hockey, netball. You're just running all the time. You stop and standing like, okay, what next? Talking of what's next. What's next?

When's your next game? We play. Trent Bridge on Sunday, then straight down to the Utiliter Ball to play on Tuesday or Wednesday? I think I've got lucky this year. No Utilitar. No Southampton. Yeah. Very well played.

Yeah, it's so tough. It's a tough joke. I've got Cardiff to be friend. That's miles from here. Yeah, that is. I might as well go to Southampton. You might go down on the way. But I could watch you.

Remember that time you drove us back from Hove? And you took us to Wales. When they're wrong way in the wrong way out. I was like, why are we in Wales? About the time I drove to Sun and ended up in the city. of Northampton. Oh, yeah. Actually, three the shit.

So have we got here? We're just on the M1? I don't know. I don't know. Sometimes I just get distracted. Anyway, you can text us on. 8-1-1-1. Make sure you start your text with

No balls. Capital letters all one word. And you can WhatsApp us on 0-3-123-1826. And the emails are saying, that's not changed. No-balls podcast at bbccccccccccccccccccccc. Jinks. Yes. We've silentister. Right, bye, everyone. See you next week.

We are back with the Fantasy 606 podcast. Whoa, well, Chris, I've got to stop you there. We have changed our name this season to the FPL podcast from BBC Sports. All you need to do is search for FPL. And if you already subscribe to our podcast, you don't need to do anything at all. Chris, have a guess what the code to join. The BBC Sport League is... Was it 5E?

It's BBC FPL. Oh, yeah. Come and play the game with us as we continue to teach Chris about Fantasy Premier League, the FPL podcast from BBC Sports. Listen on BBC Sounds.