The No Balls Cricket Podcast · No Balls Cricket Podcast

No Balls Cricket Unfiltered Episode 55: Crashed Down Under

·1 hr 6 min·4 clips

India’s Champions Trophy matches go to Dubai, and the final only moves if India miss it.

Siddharth Pradhan and Aditya Devrath open by wearing black and joking that it is a black day, even if they are not really sure why. They joke about a Jose Cuervo bottle that is full of water and say they are moving on from Red Bull sponsorship because one of them has been too lazy to order it and wants to cut back on drinking it. They welcome listeners to 2025, note that they have been missing since before the Boxing Day Test match, and set up the episode as a catch-up on all the Test cricket that has happened. The first stretch of the episode focuses on the Australia-India Tests and the controversies around them. The hosts argue about the umpiring decisions that took over the conversation. They compare the Jaiswal call with the Washington Sundar call, saying there was broad agreement that Jaiswal was out and broad agreement that Sundar should not have been out. They note that technology should be used in India, but not as a crutch. They then dig into the confusion around Hawkeye, UltraEdge, and Sniko, explaining that Australia uses Sniko while the rest of the world uses UltraEdge. They also point listeners toward Cricket Info's Cricket Monthly piece on Hawkeye and cricket technology. The discussion then moves to selection. They say India got it wrong in both games. They criticize the side for being too defensive in one match and for picking two spinners on a green, lively seamer in the next. They point out the timing of Ashwin's retirement, noting that it happened right before the Melbourne Test gap, and then the next two Tests still featured two spinners anyway. They bring Rohit Sharma into the same run of events by saying he stood down as captain and effectively dropped himself. The Sydney Test becomes another source of irritation, and the episode keeps the tone sharp, comic, and annoyed throughout. The closing stretch turns toward the Champions Trophy and the condition of the stadium. They joke about whether the venue is even ready, and whether the final will get there at all. They hand the outcome back to listeners and viewers, then sign off with more sponsor nonsense, more jokes, and one last round of chaos.

As heard by us

A fast, snarling Boxing Day Test catch-up with real cricket detail under the noise.

The No Balls Cricket Podcast uses this episode to take on the Boxing Day Test matches and the wider run of test cricket, with the India-Australia controversy doing most of the heavy lifting.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a chaotic Boxing Day Test wrap with the scorecard still warm.

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