The Final Word Cricket Podcast

Sri Lanka Australia Daily, 1st Test, Galle Day 2: Who would've thought Usman Khawaja's first Test double century, now the oldest Australian to get one, would be the day's secondary headline? Thank Josh Inglis for that, who became the 21st Australian man to salute a Test ton at the first time of asking. Adam and Bharat enjoyed that a lot and they're here to tell you more. Support the show with a Ne...

Women's Ashes Daily, Only Test, MCG Day 1: The first women's Test at the MCG since 1949 drew a lot more people than they had in 1949, we're betting, as Izzy Westbury joins Geoff at the ground. With Australia bowling first, their XI was a curiosity, but it didn't matter as Alana King kept doing what she does, revving the ball like a motorbike and perplexing England's batters. All that after Afghani...

Sri Lanka Australia Daily, 1st Test, Galle Day 1: With a simple nudge to mid-on, Steve Smith moved to another special level, completing his mission to 10,000 Test runs. But he was far from done, going on to post three figures for the 35th time, as Usman Khawaja made a ton of his own for the first time since June 2023. Adam and Bharat are two tired boys on the roof at Galle. Support the show with a...

Sri Lanka Australia Daily, 1st Test, Galle preview: Another day, another series. Plenty of conjecture around the Australian squad about how the team will be constructed in Galle, so why not go to two journalists who always have their fingers on the pulse, Bharat Sundaresan and Andrew Fidel Fernando. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get your big NordVPN discount: nord...

Season 17, Ep 21: Izzy Westbury joins for a weekly show, and there's a genuine question on the table. Tom Curran is the latest Englishman to go perambulating for no particular reason while the ball was live, then to think he was entitled to be spared the consequences. Also, the run-up to the Women's Ashes Test and the Australian men's Sri Lanka Test, a belting win for West Indies in Pakistan, some...

Women's Ashes Daily, 3rd T20, Adelaide: Another match, another stop on the procession. Beth Mooney has been in brilliant touch all series, and outscored England on her own in a virtuoso performance. Meanwhile, a vintage set of fielding highlights decorated the other half of the innings. Isabelle Westbury is in no mood to hold back, joining Geoff from Adelaide. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge a...

Women's Ashes Daily, 2nd T20, Canberra: We finally got a close one, a real genuine close one, with Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Heather Knight turning it on in pursuit of Australia's big score that was built by Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, and crowd favourite Grace Harris. But the way this ended has to be seen (or heard about) to be believed. Absurd scenes at Manuka. Isabelle Westbury joins Geoff Lemon....

Season 17, Ep 20: After four straight losses, England's women aren't handling the trip to Australia well. What's going on with them? Meanwhile Australia's men head to everyone's dream destination, the UAE, on the way to Sri Lanka. In the meantime, Aus A and the CAXI are both taking on the England Lions, and Kurtis Patterson is catching a helicopter out of prison. The BCCI get Jetstar to consult on...

Women's Ashes Daily, 1st T20, Sydney: England talked up their chances in the 20-over segment of the tour, and Australia had a couple of big omissions with injury, so it was time for new players to do their thing. Phoebe Litchfield certainly did hers, Alana King came back for her first match in the format in nearly two years, and Sophia Dunkley returned to England colours with a blazing bat. A run-...

It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week, the third of our Sleuth Group episodes, with historian Pat Rodgers joining us at an empty Comedy Store in Sydney, recorded a few hours before our last live show of the national tour. Can't stop, won't stop. Back to the start of the Sheffield Shield, to the gradations of which cricket terminology means w...

Women's Ashes Daily, 3rd ODI, Hobart: Ash Gardner has been a superstar for a while, but one thing has eluded her. A century for Australia. Not any longer, after her massive repair job when England made the early running. And let's throw in the best catch of her career. Bharat Sundaresan joins Geoff Lemon. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Get your big NordVPN discount...

The Greatest Season That Was - The Final Frontier – Colin Miller: During the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia, The Greatest Season That Was pod focused its attention on the relationship between the cricketing giants over the decades, some 20 years from the staggering 2001 encounter in India. After the home side came back from the dead at Kolkata, it was all to play for in Chennai...

Women's Ashes Daily, 2nd ODI, Junction Oval, Melbourne: Endings don't come much more ridiculous than this. England bowl brilliantly, field well, falter with the bat but still have the chance to tie up the series on level points after two games. And then... that. What the hell just happened? Alex Malcolm from Cricinfo joins Geoff to try to break it down. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patre...

Season 17, Ep 19: For the first time in who knows how many years, we missed a weekly show amid the Sydney Test, live show, and travel. So there's a fortnight to catch up on, starting with the Women's Ashes commencement and structure, then into Australia's picks for the Sri Lanka Test tour and the Champions Trophy. Also this week, Shakib is still chucking it, the Big Bash hots up, Glenn Maxwell hit...

Women's Ashes Daily, 1st ODI: One series ends, another begins, at Final Word Towers. The biggest bilateral series in the women's game is up and running in the multiformat structure that plays ODIs before T20s and a Test. At North Sydney Oval, England started off with some promise, but ended fighting Australia no more than they were fighting themselves. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreo...

The Greatest Season That Was - The Final Frontier – Mike Kasprowicz: During the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia, The Greatest Season That Was pod focused its attention on the relationship between the cricketing giants over the decades, some 20 years from the staggering 2001 encounter in India. Of all the moments in that riveting series, none live in the memory quite like the Kol...

It's Story Time, our walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. This week gradually builds into one of our more absurd episodes, as we get sunburnt on the south bank of the Yarra River with Nerd Pledge Sleuth Group member Glenn Finkelde. Glenn brings the tale of one of first-class crickets most substantial and poignant anomalies, among some appropriate loops back to previous M...

Australia India Daily, 5th Test, Sydney review: A five-Test series comes to an end, as India and Australia extend their contest back to the size it once was in the 1970s. It was quite a ride, from the stunning opening day at Perth until the crash-bang finish in Sydney. Adam and Geoff run the rule over the series and think about the future for both teams. Come to the last show of our national tour!...

Australia India Daily, 5th Test, Sydney Day 3: After two series wins in Australia, the Indian team could not make it three in a row. Well, we already knew that before the fifth Test in Sydney, but they still could tied up the series and gone home with the trophy. By day three of the match, the pitch was getting even more spicy and the batting was anything but easy. It was down to who could wobble...

Australia India Daily, 5th Test, Sydney Day 2: Goodness us, you can't look away from this match for long. If it wasn't 11 wickets on day one, it was 15 of them on day 2, along with a debut 50 from one camp and a near-national record for fastest 50 from the other. Sixes rained but bowlers reigned, as a fast and furious contest gets as tight as can be on the last bend. Come to the last show of our n...

Australia India Daily, 5th Test, Sydney Day 1: There won't be one point of argument today, there will be about half a dozen. Steve Smith's low catch, or was it? Washington Sundar's glove, or was it? Sam Konstas managing to get Jasprit Bumrah angry, and was it a terrible idea? All that and more, plus Scott Boland is still the Australian nation's beloved, and the Rohit Sharma decision has been made....

Australia India Daily, 5th Test, Sydney preview: Beau Webster has officially banged the door down for Test selection, confirmed as the man who will debut, at Mitch Marsh's expense, in this vital final BGT Test. As for India, the information from the coach Gautam Gambhir is that Rohit Sharma isn't certain to play. Make of that what you will. Adam Collins has Tom Decent with him, on co-hosting debut...

Season 17, Ep 18: It's a Final Word tradition. At the end of each year, we sit down and look at the things that worked and the things that didn't, the things that hurt and the things that healed. Also this week, our farewell to colleague Greg Baum as he finishes up his full-time job at The Age, the Bulawayo bat-a-thon, Docklands is Death Valley again, the women's Ashes squads are released, and a f...

Australia India Daily, 4th Test, Melbourne review: It's the question the Indian captain wasn't asked after the Melbourne classic: should he hand over to Jasprit Bumrah for India's must-win encounter at Sydney? Adam has Bharat Sundaresan with him to consider this, whether Australia will have to change their XI, and plenty more, on the final night of 2024. Come to the last show of our national tour!...

Australia India Daily, 4th Test, Melbourne Day 5: When a Test match gets inside the last hour on Day 5 with mutliple results in play, you know you've had a good time. So did everybody who showed up to the MCG, an absurd crowd of 373,000 people across five days. What a finish it was, with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant stepping up, Pat Cummins never giving up, Scott Boland doing his MCG work aga...