Test Match Special - No Balls: The Emergency Podcast - Universe Cross does the business for England!

Episode Date: July 13, 2023

Fresh from hitting an unbeaten 19 against Australia in the first WAshes ODI, Kate Cross talks through her innings alongside No Balls co-host Alex Hartley.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. 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. Every forehand, every backhand, every young star, every rock star. Wimbledon, 2023.

Don't miss a thing from Wimbledon on BBC Radio 5 live. Listen on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. And it's paddled around the corner, and that's going to be four runs for Cross. Jonathan tosses that up and Cross goes straight down the ground. Glorious straight drive from Cross. Where's this come from? There's the paddle over the keeper's head, down towards the boundary,

and for four. Megan shoot bowls and cross drives away for four. Scores a level. Kate Cross. England's number 10. Knight gives herself room, slams it through the offside. She tosses her bat away and embraces Kate Cross because England have won. Cross comes in round the wicket

Holder 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 to the emergency cricket podcast The Emergency No Balls

podcast with me Alex Harley You Chris Wokes No, sorry, you, Ben Stokes, no, sorry, you, Kate Cross. Hello, how are you? I'm very well, Alex. How are you? I am on Cloud 9, so you must be on Cloud 29. Yeah, what a night, what a night, what a lady Heather Knight.

Oh, my gosh. Oh, Heather Nights. What a lady, have a night. Have you got a song yet because, can you see, oh my God, what a night? Well, my mum was saying that the trumpeter was playing Crossroads, which used to be a TV show, a bit out of my era, so I'm not sure, but you were singing me a song, weren't you? Yeah, I was singing, I can't remember it, can you?

It was hey Jude, wasn't it, but he was singing Kate Cross Cam Bat. Yeah. I didn't know if you'd seen that or not. Yeah, I spotted it. Spotted it. How are you? I'm good. I'm a little bit tired. The adrenaline was pumping last night, and, you know, it was like,

like a 4 a.m. just because you can't sleep because your adrenaline's pumping and you're still kind of out in the middle but I have never ever experienced what I experienced yesterday on a cricket pitch. I've never experienced anywhere in life. I don't know what I'm talking about but wow that was so so so special. It was unbelievable. The crowd was unbelievable. The atmosphere was unbelievable. You being out there getting the highest ever score from in England number 10 unbelievable. It is successful winchaves. Yeah, yeah, but don't let the truth get in the way of a good story. True.

If you say anything with enough conviction, people believe you are. For anyone that hasn't been watching the washes, don't know what you're doing, or if you're living under a rock. But we leveled the series last night at Bristol, so it's now 6'6, with two games to go. We've got ODI at Southampton and an ODI at Taunton on Tuesday, and the washes are alive. They're more than alive, crossy.

I'm giddy. I'm really giddy. I don't know about you, but my phone blew up yesterday, so yours must actually be like a hot potato. Spud. Spud. Yeah, my phone, I've never had so many people message me, certainly about my batting.

Never get people messaging me about my batting because it didn't happen very often. But yeah, my phone was just absolutely crazy. So, it's so, so good, though. Like, it really feels like everyone that I know was watching that game of cricket yesterday. And then a lot of people that I'd always. know.

So good. So let's unpick it all. Let's go. Emergency Podcast for a reason. It started the night before. And we went to the pub, me, you, Harry and Batting John Lewis. And we bumped into some lads from Yorkshire. Oh, yeah, we did.

We got to start for a few photos in the pub. It was really lovely. And these lads were like, what did you girls do then? Because why are you like getting photos and that? And you were like, oh, I'm a cricketer. I'm playing cricket for England here. in the ashes and he went, God, I bet you're good at skimming stones. Yeah, we said it was not really the first question we ever get asked when we mentioned

that we play cricket, but it's undeniable that we are quite good at skimming stones. Yeah, so that's where the success started, really. That was, yeah, that was it, actually. If I could pinpoint a moment that I knew that we were going to win that game yesterday, it was when that workman from Yorkshire asked me if I'm good at skimming stones. Are you good at skimming stones? I think I am, yeah I'll probably be above average

I don't know how you measure skimming stones Is it by number of skims or distance? Number of Dittudud did did did this Yeah Yeah I think I'd beat you in a stone skimming contest Well yeah because you throw the ball further than me

Well you've got no shoulder at the minute Yeah well I've had seven eight weeks off now It should be alright Anyway we're not talking about me We're talking about you So the coin goes up for the toin cost and we lose the toss What did you actually want to do first or do you not know?

We wanted to have a bat and we weren't disappointed if we were going to bowl first because the conditions were primed for swinging. Yeah, they were. And I couldn't have started the game worse. Yeah, you had your worst game in an England shirt with the ball? I would say it was the worst game with the ball that I've had in any shirt for a very long time.

That was, do you know what? I don't even really know what went wrong because I said to you after the test match, if I'm overstepping on the front foot, my rhythm's out. My rhythm felt great yesterday. I felt really good. But the ball was just not going where I normally put the ball. And I've not really had that. So that was fun to try and deal with.

Then I was fielding like I had feet for hands. So that was also fun. But I just thought there's a lot of people in this crowd. It's nice and sunny now. You know, it's a great game of cricket. just enjoy it and laugh it off because you have these games they come around every now and then

Matt Mason actually said to me that's just mother cricket reminding me that she's got a very firm hand and she's willing to bring us all back down to earth every now and again so I'm just parking the first innings yeah that is absolutely fine like it happens on it you're allowed a bad game

with the ball and you've not played a competitive match for like two weeks now very true yeah so I'm obviously not worried about that and I don't know how you felt about that first innings but it felt like a really weird three hours it was like nothing happened and then everything would happen and then nothing would happen and then everything would happen yeah Australia obviously had a really good power play and then they got back in the game and then

it was almost like at the end of the innings they were probably 10 above par but Beth Mooney should have got 120 but it was really hard to bat out there and it was like I don't know how to actually assess this game yeah and it's one of them that you could only really assess it once we batted but then obviously it proved how our girls batted that the power play was the easiest and best time to bat so you know don't want to give myself any excuses but if I am going to throw that in there I'm just going to throw it in there live on the BBC

but I thought how our girls batted again set the like 84 of the power play just set the tone for us meant Alice well Alice went out and did her thing and then that allowed us to get above the rate so that then towards the back end we weren't actually under as much pressure other than the wickets column. I want to just rewind a little bit

because there was a bit of a thing yesterday where everybody had a weird day in the field and what is it with only taking specky catches? I feel like is that a no-ball's fault? Speck is only, yeah, hashtag speckis only. Yeah, it was speckis only. Heather said in her interview at the end of the game, didn't she? She just said sometimes fielding is contagious

and someone puts a catch down and their regulation catches basically The other than the specky I would have got to get Perry out, which I would think I would have taken my shirt off and run around the pitch. That would have been so good. And did you get a fingertip on it? Yeah, I got my finger on it. And it still went for four.

That's a drop. But yeah, all the other way is a drop. All the other ones are regulation catches and we should be taking them. And I don't know what it was. And they were the same. They had a really poor day in the field. It was basically a day of who made the least amount of terrible mistakes. And I think that somehow was us.

Tammy had said that John. John Lewis says something in the dressing room and it is actually really good to hear that it's not about being perfect it's about being less imperfect than the opposition. Is that the right saying? Something along those lines, yeah. Yeah.

I guess our confidence comes from. We're still not played our best cricket and I remember the ashes in 2022. We didn't play our best cricket at all. We felt close-ish to Australia. You know, we bowled them out for 200 in that first game at Canberra in that first ODI. and we should have chased that down

but now we're going toe to toe with them more often so then those mistakes become less game changing and we happen to be on the right end of them now so we get off to a flyer Tammy Beaumont Alice Capsie do a great job

we then went bang bang bang bang bang bang forget Joss it's cross the boss walks out to that oh God I was sat with our Adelaide of the whole seven innings just laughing up at my bowling display. You know, just, something just makes you chuckle every now and then.

I just burst out laughing. He's like, what you're laughing at? I was like, that over, that first over. And then I was, oh gosh, I need to go put my pads on. Like, I kept my blues on. And I was like, I need to go put my pads on. I went to sat in the dugout, and I sat with Charlie Dean on my left and Baton on my right.

And I was like, next thing, Claire Glenn and Heather Knight are out there. And I was like, if I have to go in, I'd love it to be in the teens and we needed 29 at this point and then I cursed it and Glennie got out and then I just patted me on the leg and went good luck mate off you go you've got this so I was like okay how did you feel right

glennie got out you got the tap on your leg how did you feel in that moment obviously really nervous but do you know I actually feel like I was probably the clearest that I've been going out to bat and I think that I am always clearer when I don't need to force scoring and because I knew that we had more balls left than runs needed

and knew that all I really had to do was try and get Heather on strike because she's the captain, she's 60 odd not out and that's that I can do that. You know, that's simple, simple cricket. So did you accidentally hit four-fors then? I didn't mean to do any of them all. Don't know how that happened. Except for the paddle, I did mean to do the paddle.

So three of your fours you were just thinking get Heather on strike He smoked him. Well, yeah, I've not, I said this in my interview with TMS yesterday, actually, but I had the worst net of my life the day before. I reckon I got out every single ball. And if I didn't get out, I either got hit or inside edged it for maybe a run. And it was just, it was one of them you just walk out and you go, you know what, today's not my day. And Heather had the similar net, apparently.

She said it was the worst net of her life. And she was 60 not out. So just before I went out to bat, John won the batting coach, did say, Heather said the same. She's 60 red, go back with her, you know, you can do this. But then when I got out to the middle, Heather was just really crickety with me. She was like, 29, let's get it down to 20. Ash Gardner's bowling on whoever it was. I can't remember her face first, you know, Ospina.

She's turning a little bit when it's a little bit slower. So she was quite crickety, quite like got me into the moment quite early. And she just really felt, I really felt like she had confidence in me. Yeah. She looked like it. She was taking one first ball of the over. but I think that moment was looking back

was actually really important because if I've gone out it should be going mate just get me on strike just you know just defend and I think I would have then felt like I've got

less say in the situation but because she was just like you know what you're doing if it's in your area whack it let's do this it genuinely did feel like a proper partnership out there and I've not done much

batting with Heather in a game I don't think of I don't know if I have ever batted with or maybe in the test match at Canberra so it was just it was really special actually to be out there and kind of absorb all that pressure with her. Honestly, Crossy, like, I have never screamed and shouted so much in my life.

I like, so you've hit four-fours, you've got your 19 red, Heather hits the winning runs. She throws her bat for some reason. You give her an almighty hug. Like, what did you say to each other? I don't think there was any words there. Like, when we were hugging, we were just, like, screaming. in and then I think when she gives me a head rub and she's just like you were great right you were great and then I was like we're still alive that we're still alive um but she yeah honestly like all of

it becomes a bit of a blur because it actually felt like it happened really quickly which i'm really glad about because i think if we'd like eat down the runs and it was like one every three balls or something it would have been painful and we seem to get to our increments quite quickly so the 29 became to 20 and she's like, right, get us down to 10 now. Then we got to 10. She went, right, five now. Then we got, when we were at five, she was like, right, let's win this. And that all seemed to happen really quickly.

But I just, I remember seeing like, what God, do I take to this bowler? What do I do here? And she's like, yeah, take that God. Of course you do that. It was like I'd almost forgotten what I was doing, but I was so in the zone that I knew what I was doing. It's really hard to explain. But also then you've got the captain there who's so calm, collected. She'd be like, crossy take off still.

crossy paddle. So did she tell you to paddle? Yeah, so she came down. She'd got the single off-shooter the first ball, hadn't she? The only thing I definitely remember was I'm not going to get run out backing up. Because every time I fell in for England, I've got run out backing up. So I was like, I'm not doing that. I'm not getting man-cadded. So I made sure I was in my crease. So she hits that one back down. Shooter gets a hand on it. Kind of nearly goes onto the stumps. We get the single. And then she comes down and does a bit of gardening.

She just goes, Crossie. Ramps on, mate. So I was like, okay, ramps on. Let's do it. So did it? nearly got caught, but you did it, hit it for four. Hit it for four, yeah. Actually, really embarrassingly, it nearly didn't, it nearly got stopped and we'd only run one and had to sprint back for two. It was an unbelievable effort from Darcy Brown.

Yeah. But the moment for me where I thought, wow, we can win this is when she hit that six. Yeah. Ash came around the wicket. It was outside, like, Stumb, she gives it this almighty. Like, it sounded so crisp off the bat, and it went over, whoever was at Cowell's head for six, and I was like, we can win this. My moment was your paddle. I was like, we're winning.

That felt like the moment actually where the crowd turned. They were like being polite and clapping the singles we were getting. But when I hit that, it felt like the crowd went woof and really raised it. So you once batted for thunder and you were out there, you got some runs. And you came off, you said, now I know what it feels like to be Ben Stokes. Well, yesterday, Crossie, you won England a game of cricket with the bat. Do you now actually know what it feels like to be Ben Stokes? or Chris Wilkes or Mark Wood.

Chris Wokes, Chris Wokes message me saying, you do not keep my leg up to Kate Cross. Congratulations. And I replied me like, I channeled my inner Chris Wokes. I now have a tiny understanding of what you went through at Headingley last week.

Like, amazing. But bowling is great. I love bowling. Taking wickets is great. But that was something else yesterday. Like, I've never done that before. Probably realistically, won't you do that again.

I said to just a joke. John Lewis, after the game, I was like, I'm just so glad I batted well, because everyone can now forget how crap are bowled. So that's a tick. And just before I went out to bat, Lauren Bell says to me, she goes, you weren't a bowler today, Kate. You weren't even really a fielder, so go and be a batter. So you said it to me this morning.

We had breakfast together this morning. You just said to me, it just goes to show what a stupid game we play. Yeah, because you're a bowler, right? And yes, you come back, and you've been telling everyone for years, you come back, you just needed to do it. and you had a day yesterday and then in the space of half an hour

you've had an incredible day you've had the best day in an English shirt yeah just amazing and obviously there's so much more to it than that game because someone tweeted me saying why are you celebrating

like you've won the World Cup but we've been scrapping to stay in this series it's 6'6 we know we've got two games left and we know we're still up against the best team in the world they're gonna come back

they are they're going to come back hard they have to because there's two games left like they're running out of games to win but i think we can be really proud of not only our highest odi run chase staying alive in the series heather being on a home crowd home ground with a home crowd with all the family and friends they're watching we didn't play our best cricket but we scrapped to win um you know it's obviously the emotions are so high at the minute I was nearly in tears out there on the pitch when we needed one to win I was like oh my gosh

we can't lose this game now so like woof I hold it together actually a clip of you going Heather Heather Heather are we tied are we tied right now well you know what I'm like

you know I often I'm in those moments and then I'll do something silly and I'll be like oh I thought I thought we'd won or whatever you know what I'm like clarity

I just needed that but there is someone did tweet me saying well I'm absolutely highlight cake checking the the tide but the scoreboard just doesn't doesn't make sense to you when you're out there in that moment.

I said to Anna, I was like, I was like, Anna, I saw the cut off time. I was like, is there a clock on this ground? She was like, Crossy, there's the biggest digital clock you will ever come across right there front of you. And I just was like so in my moment. And so like, oh, yeah, I know that clocks there. We play at this ground all the time. Like, what is wrong with me?

Yeah. But yeah, there's just so, so much emotion. And you don't want to get carried away. We've got to come back on Sunday and do it all again. but those moments are so special that they're the moments where you're like this is why I play this game Is there a little part of you

that's allowed yourself to get carried away last night this morning but now you know I switch back on I think I'll give myself today to keep enjoying it because we've got a cameraman coming around with us and he's doing this footage of like

on field but you know from the boundary edge and it's stuff like we've never had before we've never kind of had that access to us as players it's always the Sky replays or the BBC replays whoever's filming. And now this content is starting to churn out. So I'm getting tagged in more things today. So I'm going to have today.

And then we'll train again tomorrow. We'll come back. We'll be better because we've got areas to improve. But yesterday was just, it was special. That team song sounded so good yesterday. Oh, I can only imagine. One thing I want to know, how does it feel? I don't care about the win yesterday.

I do obviously care about the win. But how does it feel to be trending onto a tag? That was the, honestly, washes was trending. We coined a term and it got trending on Twitter, number five in the UK. I actually think it got out to number four. Did it? Oh my gosh. Washes.

Amazing. Like I can't, I said at the beginning, I can't believe how many people it felt like we're watching our game. And it really, really does feel like Ash's cricket just provides something else. It's either twists and turns or disappointment or relation or whatever it is but it just seems to be magical and it's bloody draining my gosh my gosh it's draining but it's just amazing at the same time well we've got you've got two games to go two wins needed can you do it we're going to concentrate like we've done for the whole series we've thought about

one game at a time so I can't think about Tuesday yet. We're not going to think about Tuesday yet. But if we can play better cricket than we played yesterday, then we know now we can beat this team and we've not played at our best. And we're going to keep trying to do what we're doing, try and do it better, keep trying to entertain and inspire people. I know it's become our tagline this summer, but it really does feel like if we go on to win this ashes or we don't, people are excited about women's cricket. People are coming watching women's cricket, we're selling outgrounds, people are trending us on Twitter, it's just great,

and that's a win regardless. I know we've spoke a lot about me there, but how was it for you? I know you weren't on air at the end, but actually how was that to watch? Because I know I was quite privileged being able to be out on the pitch and control and implement, but you're not in control, you can't implement the game from the Coms box. How was it?

Do you know what? I, because I knew I wasn't on air I was sort of prepping to do the TV highlights I just watched it and enjoyed it and I, in a weird way I wasn't nervous and I don't know why, I don't know whether that's like I said when you ramped that ball before I knew we were going to win

and I just was just shouting crossy! Crossy! Crossy! And everyone's like are you all right? I was like my best mate is out there batting for England and winning the game for England And, like, I was, honestly, Crossy, like, my Twitter account for the last 14 hours, I've been a fan girl of you, but it's really weird.

Keep it coming, I love it. I love it. I was, like, tweeting on the Nobles account, like, I love Kate Cross. Like, obviously it's me. I love how in those moments, it's only ever going to be you tweeting because no one else has got access to our Twitter account and just, like, making it really clear it's you that's tweeting. I love it.

I'm like, Crossy's not got her phone, it's me. Henry's like on air calling it. Amazing. Catherine called the rant, didn't she? Yeah. Well, we all did. We all went. So they had like a wide fine leg slash in between square and fine.

It was like a really stupid fielding position. And everyone in the commentary box turned around, looked at each and I went, ramps on. Everyone. Everyone went. And I went outside to be like, there must be a finer fielder. And I thought, I was waiting for them to change the field and it's so silly but I often look around to see what the field is and I'd never look at fine legs

because I don't want people to think that I'm going to rant so I was like, don't look, don't look, don't look, but she is wide. Yeah, don't look, but she's, Heather, how wide is she? What's the angle? Did you see me drop my bat when I was gardening? No, I didn't. But how? It came down.

I like to feel like I'm a batter, so I came down to like patting the pitch and there was this big tuft of grass. What does the gardening do? Because it makes batters look cool. You just flatten the bits that have like where people's spikes have dug in and maybe pulled out a bit of dirt or whatever. So I was just tapping this bit of grass down

and then I dropped my bat. I like tripped it out of my hand and it fell on the floor and it was just so quiet at that time and someone in the crowd went, Crossie, you're going to need you bat, mate? And I'm just giving them his big thumbs up. Like, thanks, pal. Thought I'd give it a go without.

Cheers, mate. Oh, well, Crossie, I am... I'm riding the wave, but I'm on top of the wave at the minute I'm buzzing, I'm excited, the washes are alive, the washes are trending, you're trending, we've got no balls live, we're on the way to Southampton, it's 6'6, I just, it's, ah, what a day. What a day. And then tomorrow we start again.

Yeah, yeah, enjoy today, tomorrow switch on, and you'll probably never feel like you did yesterday again for a while, unless you win the ashes, obviously, but that fall through the covers, you might not get that for a while, so enjoy it. I will. I'll watch you back on MV play. Yeah, nice. Congratulations. Emergency Pod. Over. Bye. Bye. Cross. I'm doing round, the wicket.

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. The Albert Park Circuit Longitude and latitude 144.9.5.1.035 degrees.

East, 37.8.501 degrees. South. 3.280 miles in length. 14 turns. F1. We'll get into the whoos and the what-nots later on. in the checker flag podcast get analysis and reaction with the checkered flag podcast

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