The Final Word Cricket Podcast

The Final Word Daily for the England-India Tests of 2021. Four seamers, big results. England chose to bat and India’s quicks finished them off not long after tea. Only Joe Root stood against the tide. You can support the show at patreon.com/thefinalword Check out previous shows at finalwordcricket.com Get 20% off playing kit at WoodstockCricket.co.uk with the code TFW20. Support the show: https://...

Season 10, Ep 15: Most of us were kids who dreamed of being rock stars. None of us had the single-minded determination to set about making it happen. Felix did, taking a bunch of mates at uni in Bristol to No.1 on the UK charts with the Maccabees. What's even more unexpected is the part that cricket played in Felix's life, two obsessions forming an unlikely partnership. Now he's written down that...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Today: Nawabs come in all shapes and sizes. We respect them all. Or do we? There's also one of Adam's favourite weeks at a Test match, plus a little dash of Winnie, and some really really really niche Surrey stuff. No surprises there. Plus some of the biggest names and one of the smallest, for a second turn...

Season 10, Ep 14: Like it, hate it, or ignore it, The Hundred is... hunderway? The stakes are high. The bills are high. So is the risk of a stumble. Henry Moeran has been watching more of the actual cricket than anyone, leading the BBC radio coverage. He joins The Final Word to talk through the possibilities and pitfalls of the ECB's big bet. Also on the show this week: might England bail on the A...

A mini-episode to let people know about our Discord server, which is basically a website where listeners to the show can hang out. It's a bit like the old-school chat boards with different pages for different subjects, but way more high-tech with things like video embedding and voice-chat channels to supplement your keyboard. Being a closed page where we know people's identities, it's a bit more s...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Today: more proof of the compelling case that the one-day tri-series must return. An understated and underrated turn from Allan Border. The numerical quirks of Bangladesh, and a big day for Sri Lanka Navy Sports Club. Then some long-term revisits take us around the Monopoly board via Arthur Shrewsbury's hau...

Season 10, Ep 13: From captaining boys' under-10s to captaining England goes the story. But retiring as a player brought much more. By now it's fair to say that no one person has driven as much progress for women in cricket as Clare Connor. Through the ECB and ICC, this is the story of that change. It's also the story of the human side of making it happen. On the first day of the controversial Hun...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Today: a time when it all happened with ease for the Son of Swamp. And a time when Swamp himself didn't go too badly. Plus a freakish coincidence with a previous number, a time when WG had a good run, a hat-related Belfast incident, a visit to Ridley Jacobs, and an untelevised trip to Colombo. There's plent...

Season 10, Ep 12: It can be hard to follow Justin Langer's line of logic. The Australian men's coach has an extempore media style that over time can veer into inconsistency. After enough misgivings about his coaching style to prompt a formal review, and after talk about embracing the chance to grow, this week the coach had moved back to denying there was a problem to begin with. Let's try to untan...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Today: there's something about doctors and cricket, they just keep coming up. We try to measure up to the unmeasurable, then wind all the way back to a literary classic born before the First World War, taking in another glimpse of the Test triangular, and look at the most underrated of the underrated, as we...

Season 10, Ep 11: Remember when England's whole team got COVID? Or something like that, we're not big on detail. That's why we've got Will Macpherson on the show to tell us about England having to quarantine an entire squad who caught the bug at home, after pulling out of various trips overseas to avoid catching the same. How did it happen, what's happening, and why weren't more hilarious selectio...

Story Time is back, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Today: the coolest band name of Adam's youth makes an unexpected appearance. We crunch some numbers on Lawrence Rowe, tackle a proper cryptic, and look at days when it was all about swinging for the fences, once by a Test player and once by TFW listener Osman Bahemia. There's also another appearance from...

Season 10, Ep 10: After much hand-wringing from us over poor over rates, the time has come to step back from the flame and take a closer look at what is happening, why it is happening and how it might be fixed. Andrew Samson, the BBC's master statistician/historian, joined us for part of that chat. Later, we worry about the state of India's women's team before finishing with a thoroughly wonderful...

Season 10, Ep 9: WTC #1 has been run and won, done and done, New Zealand are one from one. The next instalment has the same structure, but from 2023 things could change up. So at the earliest opportunity we're going to thrash out what could be improved, in a conversation with Wisden Cricket Monthly editor Phil Walker. Also this week: Vinoo Mankad freaks, dance in the streets! After a most deserved...

They’ve done it: after a lot of near misses, the New Zealanders have won a major trophy. A historic one, too, in the first ever World Test Championship. A lot needed to go right for them on the sixth day after so much time was lost to rain, but they made sure that a lot did go right. Each of Tim Southee, Kyle Jamieson, Neil Wagner and Trent Boult made an impression with the ball, before the old fi...

Yet another excellent day of Test cricket, with a gripping battle between bat and ball all through the morning session. The advantage swung from one team to the other. Kane Williamson produced a masterclass, Mohammed Shami produced some brilliance, Tim Southee produced key interventions, Cheteshwar Pujara produced his high standard. With the sixth day to come, there is still some hope of a win for...

Another gripping day that again ended prematurely thanks to bad light. Kyle Jamieson set a Test record with another five-wicket haul, up against some fight from Ajinkya Rahane and Ravichandran Ashwin. Then it was New Zealand’s turn to be scrutinised against the moving ball, with India’s quicks starting the interrogation but Ashwin getting first results. The most important moment of the day happene...

What a rearguard, what a fight. Sneh Rana, Shikha Pandey, Taniya Bhatia, Deepti Sharma and Shafali Verma were all among the stars as India fought back from following on to save the Test against England. Meanwhile, in the men’s final, New Zealand chose to bowl first and had some success with Kyle Jamieson and Neil Wagner after some flourish from Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill.  You can support the s...

We got one XI, we didn’t get the other XI, and we didn’t get a toss. Not much to report on after all the build-up to the match at Southampton. Lucky it goes for six days. Across the country though, India’s women were on the field in Bristol, and despite falling just short of the follow-on mark, Shafali Verma continued to break records.  You can support the show at patreon.com/thefinalword. Get 20%...

Season 10, Ep 8: Snehal Pradhan joins the show this week - the former India bowler has become an advocate for women in India, and co-wrote the the report An Equal Hue on the problems and solutions facing women's cricket in the country. Also, our preview of the World Test Championship, Shakib's meltdown in Bangladesh, Tim Paine on troubles with Australia's many-times-quarantining players, Ebony Rai...

What a breakneck day. First it was England’s tailenders swinging the cue with help from Sophia Dunkley. Then it was another player on debut, Shafali Verma, coming within one big hit of a Test century. Smriti Mandhana blazed off the back foot, then England surged back late with wickets aplenty. Short of the follow-on mark, there’s plenty in store on Day 3. Find The Final Word’s longer shows on podc...

It started fast, with Lauren Winfield-Hill launching sixes over the leg side and Tammy Beaumont playing strokemaker as ever. Heather Knight nearly made a ton, Natalie Sciver was in a bombastic mood, but then the wickets started to fall. Sneh Rana and Deepti Sharma did most of the good work, while Sophia Dunkley had some work to do on a historic debut. Find The Final Word’s longer shows on podcast...

The formalities were completed, and now New Zealand head into the World Test Championship final on a winning note. But which of their many bowling options will each team choose? Bumrah, Ishant, Shami, Ashwin, Jadeja, Siraj are all top-class for India. Boult, Southee, Wagner, Jamieson, Henry are the same for New Zealand, but space for a spinner is also required, and Ajaz Patel may have gone past Sa...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Today: back to the Smokers v Non-Smokers match for a minute, via a trip to the West Country. An all-time great finish that you won't remember, an unwanted record for drink-mixing, and a whole lot of confusion about x and y and what happens in between. Your new Nerd Pledge numbers: 4.11 – Not That Tim Minchi...

The fortress didn’t last for long. Day 3 featured another English batting collapse, too modest to even be especially dramatic, brought on by persistent quality from New Zealand’s bowlers. The Kiwis have almost got this match in their keeping, after a day in fast forward. You can support the show at patreon.com/thefinalword Get 20% off playing kit at WoodstockCricket.co.uk with the code TFW20 The F...