Test Match Special - No Balls: India ODIs in sight as the Lord’s Test ends in village fashion

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

Alex Hartley & Kate Cross gauge the mood in the England camp ahead of their ODI series against India. They look at the England team being in transition as Charlotte Edwards’ side look to bounce back from the T20 series defeat. Crossy discusses the increasing media scrutiny in the women’s game and they also react to THAT West Indies innings which saw them bowled out for 27 against Australia. Plus, have you put crisps on a sandwich?

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you're getting a fair exchange rate with no extra markups. Be smart. Join the 15 million customers who choose Wise. Download the Wise app today or visit wise.com. T's and Cs and Cs apply. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Al, we've got to issue a swear warning because you are an absolute potty mouth. Not another one. And you need to remember that your grandma listens to this. 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 wicket. Oh, that's... Boulder.

Boulder. Leaving 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 Nobles, the cricket podcast, with me Kate Cross and you Alex Hartley. How the devil are you? Hello, yes. I hope I'm sounding all right because my mic is not in front of me and I'm worried that Jack's going to come and tell us off. But he's not complained yet. Other than that, I'm fine and dandy.

You also just text me saying, I hope you're up for this podcast because I've just had one of those naps where I was in a coma and I have just woken up from it. Yeah. Do you know when, like, my hip hurts? I must have been lying down on one side for like over now. Dead arm. Dead arm, not. Dead arm. But I get, don't get dead arms.

I get dead hips because I've got big body. They boned her. Yeah. I'm very, very well, crossy. How are you? That's unusual. It's not unusual to be loved by anyone. You know, she's in a good mood when she's singing in the first two minutes of the pod.

Yeah, well, we have just sat down for like 15 minutes, It's just the two of us. Just the two of us. Should we try and put a song to everything we say on this podcast? Nope. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't lie. No, no, no, no, baby.

No, no, no, no, no. You got to try. Name the artist. Gendrick Lamar. Bergie. Oh. I have the devil are you? Yeah, I'm good, thank you.

I'm currently in Southampton. The furthest I could get away from Manchester. Came down on Sunday, met up with the one day squad. Yeah, that's all I've got for you. I'm fine. I'm good. Good. Good. I will see you in Southampton tomorrow. You will. You're travelling down to do a bit of commentary, aren't you? Yeah. The ODI squad, you're back in and amongst it. I am, yes. It's always, it's always a bit hard coming into the squad when there's been cricket beforehand.

So sometimes if the ODI squad start or the ODIs start the series, it's a bit nicer. bit more difficult. You feel like you're playing catch-up. Obviously, the girls have played 5 T-20s already against this team. So it's almost like, I've watched the cricket, but you've got to kind of still react when you get involved in it. But do you know what I'm trying to say? Yeah. Yeah. So it's like odd coming back because they've, like the squad basically stays the same, doesn't it? More or less. You just take a few out, add a few in. Yeah. So we've had three come in, so that's me, ADR and MLAM and then two vacated, which was Pace Grovefield, sorry, three vacated, Izzy Wong and Danny Wyatt. So three for three basically.

Yeah. How is Camdenor? Yeah, it's been good so far. I did press today actually and everyone, well, that was the question I got asked and I've only been here for a day and a half. So it's always hard to gauge. But I feel like obviously the T20 series was three to scoreline. But it's hard to say that no one's happy with that scoreline, but it feels like a lot has been learnt from that series, from what I'm hearing, from the conversations that have been had. So it feels like it was a positive series in that sense, although obviously we would have loved to have won the series.

But we're not going to win every game of cricket that we play. So it's kind of maybe adjusting expectations around what it all looks like at the minute. Especially, yeah, especially at the minute, like you can't go from losing 16-0 against Australia. and there'd be so much that needs to change and so much improvement that needs to happen. So this is the argument I keep having on air that doesn't seem to get across. Do you know what?

That annoys me. When I back the team, it doesn't get quoted. Anyway, so what I keep saying... Headlines all. Literally. So what I keep saying is Lottie comes in three, four weeks before the season starts. What are you expecting?

Change overnight? Yeah. And it's a really similar team, isn't it? I think what I've noticed the press picked up on was Tammy mentioned in one of her post-match interviews about this team being in transition and then there was this big uproar because it was like the second most capped international team

we'd ever put out or something along those lines. I don't know the numbers exactly. And so it's not a team in transition, but what Tammy meant by that, I am assuming, is that a lot has changed and a lot has happened. There's a lot of scarring. A team in transition in a different way.

Do you don't think the press took that the wrong way? Because there are different ways to take we're a team in transition. That's what I mean. I think it got taken in that the team has changed drastically, which it hasn't. Obviously, I'm reading between the lines with this because I'm not supposed to tell me about it.

But it feels like the transition bit is that we've changed our leadership roles. We've got a new captain. And that new captain wasn't there. We had a captain takeover in Tammy who wasn't even vice captain in the game. So there's just a lot going on. There's a lot of scarring from the.

ashes series. And actually I think we just need a bit of time to get things right. And we're obviously under scrutiny. We're going to be. Of course we're going to be. We're an international team. But we're just still working it all out as a new group. I'm using inverted comments for anyone that can't see me, which is everyone. You're not a new group. You're the most kept. You know what I mean. You know what I mean. This isn't one for you to reply to because I feel like you're not going to be able to. But me in my mind, I had this conversation with Henry on air and we were talking about the next World Cup

and talk about this team being in transition and I said, okay, if England don't make the World Cup semi-finals in October, will you be surprised? And he said, no. I said, if England win the World Cup in October, will you be surprised? He said, yeah, I said, right, that's where we're at.

For me, we have to look forward to 2026 and that's when in 20206, that World Cup at home, we start expecting stuff from this team again. And you'll see, like, Lottie will have had time to bed in her ethos and her way of wanting to lead this group and that will as well

of course like that wasn't party to more than half of the series that's just gone so it just feels like we need a bit of time and that's really difficult

to ask for when you are an international team and your expectation of yourself is so high but obviously the expectation from the press is also very very high so we're not

we're not silly we know that we should be a better team than we are right now but we also I still learning there's still like people who haven't played a great deal of international cricket.

And maybe, yeah, maybe I'm just asking people to just give us a touch more time. It seems to be nice. And appreciate that we are really trying hard. The team's working really, really hard. I did Sky on Saturday. And I obviously had to, I felt like I had to really defend the group because of the narrative around the fielding. And the only thing I can say is like you guys, and I put you in this, but I mean, general you media and punditry and stuff like you don't witness every single fielding session

that we do or training session that we do like so it's hard to feel like we're getting judged for that when people aren't there to witness it yeah yeah yeah i think it's because our expectations are so high of you like yeah and just all i was saying is it's just not quite transitioning from training onto the pitch just yet but yeah i really just don't think we're too far away from it looking a whole lot better. How do you then as a group and personally cope with the pressure that the media has started to put on you, which is so new? Well, it's always wanted.

We always want, like with more media attention comes more bums on seats, comes more ticket sales comes, well, hopefully more ticket. Yeah, no, no, don't put words in my mouth, Alex. but what I found really interesting was so it was a really good example so I'm on Sky I'm talking to Nick Knight and he was saying about the fielding and I was talking about

it's really difficult to replicate the pressure you're under in a match at a training session no matter how hard you try no matter what drills you come up with you're never going to feel like you're on TV in front of 10,000 people at Old Trafford or wherever it might be and then Nick finished the conversation by being like

well good luck in the ODIs next week we'll be watching so make sure you don't drop catch. And I said on air to him, I said, you're immediately putting extra pressure on because that's the narrative now. The narrative is that we have to be perfect. And I said on air, there's not one single cricketer I know ever who's played the game who hasn't dropped a catch. And what we've got to start doing now is just being more consistent with the catches that we take rather than feels like we're making a few more errors than we'd like. And also knowing that like what we're saying about you is what we're saying about Indian men

when they drop 11 catches at a test match. Like that scrutiny is so equal because I think people are like, right, okay, it's not always scrutiny, which is what I find hard. It's like we are like most of the time really positive. But it also just shows how big the game is now, is what I'm trying to say of like where it's come from, where did you come from?

Where'd you go? No cricket team out there is going to have the perfect game of cricket. We're not. Even when Australia are at the best, they still fumble, they still miss field, they still make mistakes, bowl the odd bad ball, make a bad error batting. So it feels a little bit like we're expected to be perfect suddenly. And that doesn't feel very fair from my point of view. Yeah.

That's how I feel. India, though. Can we talk? Where have they just suddenly got good from? as in the improvement in the last 18 months is remarkable what tournament started two and a half years ago that'll be the one that'll be it it just goes to show you give domestic players

the platform to be put under more pressure more regularly you're going to make a better group of players to pick from and that's for me it feels like they've just got more debt at the minute and they've got youngsters coming in who actually haven't played a great deal of WPL but been around those franchises and seen how the best train and obviously the beauty of the WPL is you've got six overseas players in those teams

so there's a lot of experience for people to learn from and talk to and improve their games by just chatting on the side to so it goes to show like the fruits of the WPL have been incredible. I know Smitty got that 100 in the first game they didn't really score many afterwards and I think for me it was every time

they played somebody else stood up for them with the bat And I think that's been the huge difference. Like Harmon's not scored at run. Yeah. And in the past, it would be if you got Smitty early, then you had a really good chance of bowling India out cheaply. But yeah, their depth now is incredible. And it's great because it's such a challenge

and you know that you're coming into a series and you're going to get challenged and your skills are going to get challenged, which is exactly what you want. You want to do all this hard work at training so that you can get put up against the best. So I'm looking forward to the Audi series. It should be good.

So we've got amazing venues as well. We're at Southampton tomorrow. We've got Lords on Saturday and then we're up at Chesterly Street in Durham on Tuesday. So it's a great series. Really close together, all of them, yeah. Good. Yeah, all in a week.

Although, although if it was Lord's Oval and, I don't know, it's the one a bit closer, we'd be like, right, we need more in the north. So we've got north, south, middle. Yeah. Middle? Are you calling Lord's middle? Well, it's easy to get to, isn't it?

Right, okay, the capital, yeah The capital of the city It's good to get to Capital of the City What else have you actually been up to Because I don't know Not masses really What if we do?

Oh, we did the grade cricket last week Didn't we? So we're actually, these pods are coming thick and fast At the minute They are, they are And we're good at podcasting We are We are, so we had the boys on

And they were crazy chaotic And when it started, I was like, oh my God, where is this going to go? They've taken it over. They were brilliant, weren't they? They were really funny, obviously, because they're very funny people and they've got a very successful podcast, but it was nice of them to come on an award-winning podcast, actually. They're a triple award-winning podcast. Yeah.

We need to say that Smitty is coming on, but she's just delayed. A little bit delayed, sorry about that. We've got some cricket to talk about, which is a bit unusual for us on Nobles the Cricket podcast. Did you see the West Indies Australia score? Did I see the score, Crossie? I was in the middle of doing a show for five, five, nine till ten p.m. last night. And I got into the studio and Chappas turned his laptop round and showed me the screening. Mitch Stark was on five for four.

Oh, God. I'm just going to get the scorecard up. West Indies went into that final day needing 200 to win, close to 200 to win. So it was, you know, low scoring by anyone's imagination. 27 all out they were in 14.3 overs so they've not even drawn it out it is rum rate of 1.86 there's six extras in that as well so they scored 21 off the bat okay and so Stark gets six for yep he gets the quickest five foot ever well he's only bowled seven point three overs four of them were maidens Scott Boland gets a hat trick that poor bloke's probably not going to

they get picked to the next test match. Yeah, it happens a lot to him, doesn't it? But what a day to forget by the West Indies. And you know what? They bowled Australia out for 121 in the second inning. So they're probably thinking, we're in here. We've got an opportunity to beat Australia. Well, off the back of it, I've just seen on Twitter that the West Indies have like,

the presidents basically have been like, right, emergency. Because last year they drew in Australia. They then drew in... It was only too much series or last year. Do you remember? Yeah, then they drew in Pakistan. and then they've just been absolutely hammered by Australia being bowled out of 27. So what they've done is they've got all the grates of the game together.

And when I say grates of the game, I'm like the Brian Laura's. Go on name some more greats from the West Indies team out. Don't Google it. Oh, no, he's gone off my screen. It was on there. Clive Lloyd. Are you? Yeah. It could be. Are you just guessing? no

name you remember I think so yeah I think I've worked with him okay oh my god I've nailed that it is so they've got Brian Laura Clive Lloyd

Viv Richards how have I forgot about Riv Riv Riv Riv Rivie Rivie boy I actually Vib came up to you

a game in the PSL he's like so good to see you back and I've called him Riv Anyway, Chandapal, Chanderpaw, something give it to, something give it to, 5 million and 40 odd. Right, so the greatest of the game have probably all come together and they are going, okay, we need figure West Indies cricket out. Interesting, isn't it? Because not, just because you played cricket and been successful at it doesn't mean that you know how to fix things like this. No, but they will have played in teams that have had emergency meetings.

before and we'll go, okay, like, let's try and fix this. Maybe, maybe it's like a 16-0 defeat in the ashes and things will change. But can we just laugh at 27 or that? Oh, oh, it's awful, isn't it? It'll be one of them where you just can't stop it when the wickets are just tumbling and you're sat there going, I'm 10, I don't need to worry about this. And then in the 10th over, you're thinking, God, I better put my pads on. It's like, again, Doug, four.

duck duck duck goose good game that's what it goes like you can just imagine if one run gets hit down the ground you're like oh what I was enjoying all those dots

in better news for cricket around the world how amazing was the Lord's test match in every single way possible crossy like I feel like that was one of those where I was like, I was lucky to go to a few of those days. It was, it had

everything, it had hundreds, it had fiefers, it had fights, it had tame dismissals, it had massive sellies, it had send-offs, it had match referee rooms, it had everything. Hitting the balls,

changing the balls, no balls. Literally and then it's almost the way the test match ended, summed up test cricket perfectly, because it was such a biasty game. There was on five different occasions, five different feisty bits of behaviour,

fruity behaviour on the pitch, like you say, send-offs and whatever. And then just such a limp way to end. But then with the biggest sally of the day where they all ran over to the stand and it was like, who can stop show him,

but don't knock him on the hand because he's got a broken hand that he needs an operation on. You could see it as well when he was hugging he was almost like, ah. He's like, ah, ah. But I guess he's obviously been ruled out since then, so we know.

Well, it was pretty obvious when he wasn't coming on the pitch quite that often. But great for him in a way to be able to finish the game off because he's obviously not going to be involved in the rest of the series now. Yeah, exactly. And like, does that not show where that England men's test team are at that someone who needs an operation on his hand is willing to go out and bowl at 21 years old? I feel like the phrase, put your body on the line is very extreme. but like he was fielded at deep cover

and had to dive for a ball and he had to go one-handed and couldn't use his hand to stop himself on the floor because he would have mangled it a bit more I just feel like this team would do anything for each other I do think that's not a new thing though

no I know but I just think that summed it up I think you see that in all cricket like Steve Smith was still going to bat when his finger was pointing the wrong way and the bone was sticking out like there's people in Nathan Lyon with the calf

It took him five minutes to get down the stairs and he had to go out when they were seven down to get there in time. I mean, throw myself into the category. I broke my thumb and dislocated it in the middle of a test match and still went out as Night Watch Watcher. Like, you just do it because you don't want to miss out.

Excuse me, you don't call it Night Watcher. Sorry, the night lady. Lady at the night. Yes. But you just do it because you don't want to miss out? Do you remember Lauren Winfield Hill broke her wrist a week before the World Cup in 2017? and played the whole series.

Like, you do it. And she was having injections before every game. Like, you find ways of doing it. Yeah, it's true you do. But I don't know, 21 years old, just to, like, I have so much respect for him. And there's been so much talk around him as a player in particular that it was just a suitable ending to everything. But what an awful way for a test match to end. And it was Siraj as well, who was like the centre of all the drama all week.

He's a feisty character. I love watching him bowl, but like, gosh, you could start a fight in a, what's that saying, a bull in a china shop. Yeah. What else they don't want to say about the test match? Joffra's back. And Joffra had Jonathan Agnew and then tried to drag people in with him. Yeah. So I said on Five Live last night, what we need to know and what everyone needs to know is pundit is what we say about players can sometimes hurt their feelings.

And, you know, if I turn around, and by the way, for anyone that's just listening to this little snippet, I do not mean this in the slightest. But if I turn around and said, I don't think Heather Knight's ever going to play cricket for England again because of the injury that she's got. And she turns, she comes back in October, plays in the World Cup. I, she's going to be with me. And I feel like what he said, what I guess said could easily have been forgotten about if it was Alistair Cook or John. route as captain, but because he said it to Ben Stokes, who is the kind of guy who does not forget these things, he's obviously relayed this to Geoffra Archer, and he's then turned up wearing the hat that Jonathan Agnew bet against Ben Stokes in the bet. So it's so good. So, yeah,

well done, Joffre. It was great to see you back. We love watching you running and bowl, the quickest spell on day five that any English bowler has bowled for 10 years or whatever the stat was. Good on you. Obviously. Good on you, man. The Dakar Rally is the ultimate off-road challenge. Perfect for the ultimate defender. The high-performance defender, Octa, 626 horsepower twin turbo V8 engine and intelligent 6D dynamics air suspension. Learn more at landrover.ca.

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take a detour to southeastern Anatolia and discover more about the world in Turkey. We've also got something new for our listeners. Yes, you've finally got your way. Finally got my way after you said no. I am. Henry said no. Because I, you know, I'm a forward thinker, mystic mega lighting on. You, I said no, Alex, because you wanted us to have a mobile phone that people could ring us on.

That was where I drew the line. This is not the case. I wanted a work phone is what I wanted. But people aren't emailing anymore. Yeah, it's not good enough. We're trying to attract the Gen Zs, I think. I think this is where we're going wrong. No, I think we're gen Zs, aren't we?

No. We're millennials. Yeah, we're old. Yeah, we are old. So we've got a number. We've actually got a mobile number. We do. And so you can text us on 8-1-1-1-8-1-1-1.

8-1-1-1-1. I sound like, it feels that we're on the radio. But please start your text with no-balls because otherwise you're going to get lost in the... Ether. Just start your text with no-balls to 8-1-1-1. Do you think I can text it now? Yeah, go on.

But you have to start it with no-balls, all one word. And please, we need some questions for Smriti. So get those questions in. Also, if you want to email us, we still do old school, so you can go no ballspodcast at BBC.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com. It's so good. They got her mobile number. What should I put on a text? I don't know. No, it started with nobles. Nobles. Yo, does this work? It's Hartley. Oh, you're going to get blocked. You're going to be blocked with. in two minutes. Sent. Yo, does this work?

It's Hartley. 8-1-1-1-1. Beautiful. It's so good. They said it twice. Beautiful. Wild card. Wild card day.

More cricket. This is you going through your sticky notes, isn't it? No, I've not got this written down. I'm just remembering because we did an episode that was so bad because we hadn't planned it that it couldn't go out. So we planned this one and we spoke about wild cards. We planned it twice. Yeah, the wild card's been picked.

Jack's just sent that. Why, it works. Okay, so we can, can we call this number when we're drunk? Can you ring this number? Surely you can't. Wild cards. Jimmy? Mad.

Not mad. It's done really well for lengths, hasn't he? So. Yeah, I don't think that's mad. The one I think is mad. Well, the whole thing's mad because wild cards, there's people that been picked up. I've never heard of.

But there's also been loads of people doing great stuff in the blast that haven't been picked up. Yeah. yeah uh rocky flintov's been picked by his dad yep that was i think the thing was that he'd not played a professional t 20 game yet yeah yeah if you're gonna start starting 100 got it slankish you're gonna start slankish you through and through what's a bit of nepotism where do you learn that word why do you know that word why do you know that word because i'm smarter than you you you don't know that word um i do know that word thank you

No, I'm impressed, Alex. Jack's younger, isn't he, the producer? Oh, did he teach it to you? Probably. We've got some questions that have come through on the old gram. Yes. What's your favourite film, Alex? Finding Nemo.

Great film. Yeah. Amazing. You? It's a too hard question because, what mood are you in? You're in a mood where you just want to watch a film? Yeah, that's obviously. So, my hungover film is.

is the greatest showman. I wish you never hung over. When was the last time you were up over? Like four years ago. When there was the last time over? T20 blast finals or whatever it was. Oh, F-A-Cup. Yeah.

You know what? They were my 100 headshot photos that day. So look out for them because I was, I think I was still quite drunk actually when I went and had them done. So if I want to cry, Ferris Gump, if I want action, then it's the Dark Night Rises. So I've got loads of different favourite films. I also love Inside Out if I want a bit of sentiment.

That's good. Inside Out 2 is not as good as Inside Out One. Yeah, because they bring in anxiety and I'm trying to stay away from it. Trying to just clear away from that thing. Jack just asked us, there need to be a cricket film? Absolutely not. Who would play you if there was a cricket film? Who's had a real

successful for one day but bang average career What about you look a bit like Emma Stone not with the hair that she's got the minute but you got quite the same face Thank you Thank you

Harmon would play you Yeah and you'd get so much money Okay I'm up for it What's your favourite crisp Dan says personally a knick-knack Throwback Oh my God, nice

and spicy nook nights. Do you remember them? Yeah. What was the other one? Was it Ribbon Saucy? That was purple. Because they used to sell them at the cricket club and I always used to, it was like 30p for a packet of Chris. Now kids, young kids, talk about nepotism. You have you.

Well, that was a professional footballer. Yeah, but 30P for Chris and you used to get a Fredo for 10p. Do you remember that? I know, I know. Ellie said, just want to say thank you. You guys changed my life and kept me going. Thank you, Ellie. That's really lovely.

Oh, did you see the tweet we had the other day? We saw the young girl at the cricket mentions. So it's called from Roundsy. Met Kate, met Alex, met them both together. Thank you girls for helping a little girl find love for cricket. And being so kind to give just a little bit of your time to make somebody's day. I remember this because we said it's really unusual that we're both at a game together and have a photo together. Yeah.

Give that one a real tweet, lovely tweet. Lauren Lily, lovely name, says, how do you manage slash cope when you aren't selected for a team? Oh, that's one for you, I reckon. Oh, well, you've been there. You've been dropped. I've not been selected so much. It changes, doesn't it?

You didn't get selected, so I had to retire and now do commentary. That's what you've got to do. It changes because I feel like when I first didn't get selected for Lanks, let's say, after my England career and I'd come back and I started playing flanks I was like shocked yeah and like angry and was like what I'm so much better like than that how have you dropped me and then no that was my that was my that was my microphone is good to me though that was my my foot on my leather chair can you hear

You're trying to do it again, aren't you? I'm trying to recreate it so you don't think I did a trump on the online when it lies. And then obviously once it happens more and more, you sort of come to terms with it and you respect it. And it's not that the coach thinks you're bad. It's just the right decision for the team. I think going off what you're saying and my view on it is, I think it's about your own expectation.

So there's been times where I've been part of this England team where I haven't expected to play. So there was a lot of my early career where I knew that Catherine and Anne you were very, very much settled in the team and were much better cricketers than me. And I wasn't expecting to play. So I remember going into a lot of tours being like, if I'm on the tour, it's a bonus. And then any cricket I get is a big bonus. Yeah. Whereas I feel like now, like if I was dropped by Lancashire or England, I think I'd really struggle with that because.

Oh, it's so hard because you don't want to sound like a by saying that you expect to play because I don't expect to play. And I feel like... But you would expect, if you walk into that lunch dressing room and say, oh, by the way, coach, I'm available tomorrow. You're expecting to play. Yeah. And I think that's why I'd really struggle with that. And that's what I'm saying when I first got dropped. I was like, how dare you?

Yeah. So I think it's around your own expectations. And then it is really hard because when you first hear that you're not playing, I remember when Lisa told me I wasn't playing in. New Zealand, which was the year we should have had the World Cup. It was the COVID time. The World Cup had been postponed by a year, but we still went to New Zealand and had a tour. And I really felt like the ODI shirt was mine and I'd earned it. And the warm-up games went so badly that I didn't play in the first game. And I remember, like, the tears that came out of

my eyes and the way I cried was like someone had passed away. It was, it didn't warrant not being picked but I was so upset by that and I remember having a really heated conversation with Heather about it and like went to Lisa and I was like I'm really disappointed by this and after that it almost spurred me on to be better so it was a really good thing in the end but I remember my expectation of myself was so high that even a warm up game didn't go well I expected to play and that was almost a massive wake-up call for me to be like this isn't set in stone nothing is it's not how it was yeah that's just not how it works at this level so So I remember that being great for me, but also I found it really difficult to hear the words that I wasn't playing.

Yeah. Yeah. I remember that. I remember that. And I remember you obviously were really upset and text me. So I crunched your numbers for you. Do you remember? And I was like, right, here are all your stats.

And you're like, thank you. Yeah. And again, it doesn't warrant anything. It's almost like where you are in the moment. So I feel really lucky at the minute that. So when I say I've not been part of the T20 stuff and I find it difficult coming in, it's because I'm almost second-guessing myself again, like I'm not good enough to be in the T-20s,

so I have to almost be on it from ball one. And we did a little net scenario yesterday where I bowled at Tammy. First ball was probably this far outside-off stump, like a stump width outside-off stump. It was like a fourth-stump line, and she just cuts me for four. And I was like, you've got to be better.

You've got to be on it because you're being watched. There's a team being picked tomorrow for this game on Wednesday. So it's like you second-guess yourself all the time. Yeah, it's weird, isn't it? But also that competition is needed. Yeah, it's so good because it does. It makes you be better. Imagine you just cruised, yeah, imagine if you just cruised thrown

and you're always going to play it, like you'd be so average. That's where being captain's really nice because you know you're going to play. You can beat yourself. What else have we got? What is your go-to meal deal? Loving the pod and loved meeting Alex and Kate on Saturday. Meal deal.

I'm a really, oh, I'm boring. I'm really classic. I'm a ham and cheese sandwich gal. with salt and vinegar crisp that you put in the sandwich and then some sort of fizzy drink. If I was to pick you up a meal deal, I'd go sparkling water, salt and vinegar crisps,

but I would have gone chicken, like a chicken sandwich, not a ham and cheese. If I'm getting crisps in the meal deal, then I always get a ham and cheese. Because then... Oh my God, if anyone hasn't tried this, it's a leap.

You have to put your crisps in your sandwich. Well, I'm sorry. who's never done that before? There'll be people out there that have not tried this, I'm betting you. You just said that like you were the only person to have ever put crisps at an army sandwich. But people are going to be going, oh, that's grim,

a bit like, you know, the LBW stuff happens. Can people stop asking if I've had a boob job? Have you had a boob job? We've said this every week for three weeks. No, I've just got fat. I was at Wimbledon the other day, don't know? If anyone knows, but I went to Wimbledon again. I said to one of the guys that I was with last year

I was like oh it's really funny because this time last year I hated all my photos because I thought I looked fat and then this year I'm definitely bigger and one of them went yeah you are and I went I don't have any scales in the house because if I'm over 65 kilos I'll be absolutely devastating

and he went oh no you're over 65 your boots are you need to alone I was like okay someone needs to run can I just give you a quick update on the pigeons So, pigeons, dad got rid because so many people come up to me now at games and ask how my pet pigeons are.

Dad got rid of the barbecue. I got back the other day and they are back next to the box that has all my furniture cushions in. So I've pulled the furniture cushions away from the wall, the box away from the wall, sorry, and the pigeons now come in and they're like sniff around

and like, where's my house gone? It's gone. I've got rid of it. So I bought some pigeon repellent stuff online. So I got the spikes that you can put on your balcony, but they look so ugly. Yeah, you can't have them. I wouldn't allow that.

Like, so ugly. I've put two up and they're just so bad. I then got pigeon repellent spray. Sprayed it everywhere. And I thought, I'll just leave it for 10 minutes. So I went back outside and there was a pigeon. And I ran at the pigeon and it startled it. And the pigeon flew into the glass door, dazed itself, and then flew at me and then flown off.

And I've hung up, so I'm like, I don't know how you'd describe them. I can describe them. They look like what children at nursery might make for Christmas decorations, but with like silver, shiny paper. Yeah, like dream catchers. No, they're not as good as that. They don't look anything like a dream catcher. They look terrible.

They're awful. They are like they are such an eyesore. a wind time, but made by a child. But with no pigeon has been inside. Oh, they were there. 18 hours, yeah. One more, Alex. We've had an email that says,

Dear Calix or eight, I see what you've done there. Against my better judgment, I'm going to wade into the conversation about adding sports people on Strava. Oh, don't like this Dave already. I love my sport. These days, mostly taking part in triathons

and increasingly silly distance running my first ultra last year. And as a result, I like to follow some athletes on social media. Strava isn't social media. I find it interesting and amazing to see what top athletes, such as Alex Yee, Lucy Charles Barkley, and the Brownlee's doing their training session. So I follow some on Strava. Yeah, but they're really good at running, so they don't care that people follow them.

Yeah. Like, they run marathons in 12 minutes or something stupid. I'm also an avid cricket fan. I remember watching the first ever 100 match and seeing the universe cross-opening the bowling. And I think, you think, scoring the first ever six in the tournament's history? That's not a thing. And the game opened my eyes to how entertaining women's cricket can be

and as a result, I started listening to your excellent podcast and consider myself a fan of the women's game now too. This is where it gets a little awkward, but I hope the above context helps. As I was following Alex Yew and Coenstrava, I saw that Kate Cross was also on the platform. I love that I'm coming up

as suggested people to follow with Alex Yee. I attempted to follow her too just out of interest as to what training she does and how fast she is, et cetera. Obviously, as Kate has explained, she doesn't want people, she doesn't know following her and seeing where she lives so quite brightly,

totally ignored my request. I didn't ignore it. I denied it. But I'm right in this, as some athletes do make their training profiles public, but presumably don't train anywhere near their house. So some of us follow them in a completely non-creepy way. As a dad of two kids, age three and seven months,

I'm hoping to introduce them to the game soon. Three and seven months? Oh, three years. Three. And then seven months. That's not physically possible, is it? Not if you're doing the three month one first. I'm hoping to introduce that. That's a medical miracle if it is.

I'm hoping to introduce them to the game soon and your podcast too, given that you bleep out the bits so your kids can listen. Keep up the good work, Dave. I do get it. Dave, keep running. Yeah, good look with the runs. I get it.

And I do presume that these people run around track, so it's a bit different. But I just, yeah, don't, it's the weird house bit for me. Yeah, that's fine. And you know what? I'm going to go for a run now and not put it on Strava. Go on, gal. Because if it's not on Strava, it didn't happen. Remember, you can text us on.

Start your text of no balls. On. Okay, we need to work out how to smooth that bit out. You can text us on 8-1-1-1. Start your text with no balls. And you can now text us because we've got a phone, a work phone. Jackads. Thanks guys.

Bye, everyone. into the murder of Punjabi singer and rapper Sidu Musayala. The facts, they aren't out in the open. Why Sidu Musayala, you know? Uncovering a global criminal underworld that reaches far beyond India's borders. There are so many rumors. No one wants to talk. There might be repercussions.

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