The Final Word Cricket Podcast

Mark Wood had some fun with the bat as England surged on to 303, and Broad got Tom Latham out early. From then on, things stopped going England’s way. Dropped catches, overruled appeals, and a lack of luck for some quality bowling. On the other side, New Zealand just keep finding good new players. This time it was Will Young joining Devon Conway to gradually build up the runs. New Zealand are 74 b...

A proper twisting turning day of Test cricket started this match off, with a arm wrestle of a first session, a run of wickets in the second, and some tail-end fighting back in the third. England would have been worried earlier but will be fairly happy after Lawrence and Burns found some runs, while Boult returned with the ball for New Zealand to partner well with Matt Henry. You can support the sh...

Season 10, Ep 7: Vish joins the show in a busy week in England after Ollie Robinson was suspended following his Test debut. We talk through the purpose of his suspension, his history of racist jokes, and what part is played by age – either of the comments themselves or the person making them. Also this week: Dan Christian for Australia! He's in the touring squad. But how many weeks of quarantine i...

New Zealand set up the Test match beautifully on Day 5 at Lord’s but England refused to play ball. What gives? Ollie Robinson is out, and the draw leaves plenty of questions about who will feature in the second Test. You can support the show at patreon.com/thefinalword Get 20% off playing kit at WoodstockCricket.co.uk with the code TFW20 The Final Word is part of the Bad Producer Podcast Network S...

What a tussle on the fourth day. Tim Southee finished with six wickets, Rory Burns finished with his best Test century, and England finished up just over a hundred runs behind on the first innings. But with the whole third day lost to rain, it will take something impressive for New Zealand to set up this match for a win. You can support the show at patreon.com/thefinalword Get 20% off playing kit...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Today: raise the bat. 50 episodes of this indulgence are somehow in the bag. We'll have both Mad Dogs and Englishmen, midday sun or otherwise. A closer look at the fitting finish to an epic Test series, an exhibition of T20 perfection, some pure filth from 100 years earlier, and the Final Word's party numbe...

He resumed the day on 136 and just kept going. But not everything was Conway’s way. Mark Wood started a speed spell for England, and the match rattled and rolled. Then came Neil Wagner to add some flourish in ways that only he can. NZ’s first innings is wrapped, and England have started a decent reply. You can support the show at patreon.com/thefinalword Get 20% off playing kit at WoodstockCricket...

Win the toss, bat first, and make a ton. It couldn’t be easier for Devon Conway, who is unbeaten overnight with the highest score ever made on debut at Lord’s. England went with an interesting bowling approach, and couldn’t break through often enough despite a fine show of quality. A proper tussle on the first day. You can support the show at patreon.com/thefinalword Get 20% off playing kit at Woo...

Season 10, Ep 6: Daniel Brettig joins the show to discuss Cricket Australia's new and old appointment as CEO, as well as Dan's own appointment at The Age. We look at a crazy year in the life of Boom Boom Afridi, the upcoming Test between England and New Zealand, the arrival home at last for Australia's players, another round of political strife in Afghanistan cricket, the county wrap and the new W...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Today: a trip across Australia's lines from the Brisbane to the Barassi. Some cryptic stuff about numbers that don't equal other numbers. A couple of the great counterattacks, and the fastest in the world in more ways than one. Jean Valjean is back, along with 1970s beer advertisements and even more time th...

Season 10, Ep 5: Is he the first live-streaming superstar? The cricket world turned to a dodgy video feed from a gale-struck Canterbury as Darren Stevens produced one of the more audacious innings in the first-class game. Fifteen sixes later, he nearly reached a double ton while his batting partner made 1 run. It was just the latest in a series of scarcely believable episodes in an unusual cricket...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Today: the innings that even Robelinda agrees could have been the best of all. A player with the same number in a whole lot of categories. The genius behind the Doug Ring Cycle, another of the great comebacks, catching a few at the beach in Bellingen, and the Final Word's most shameful miss in the history o...

Season 10, Ep 4: Horror movies teach us that if you don't nail the monster properly, it always comes back. Australia's ball-tampering story was never buried properly the first time around. This week we speak to Peter Lalor about the news side of the story that won't go away. We also cover various squads, the county championship, and have a breezy chat with Australia's nearly-there cult hero Michae...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Today: how to rate a big day on the field against the big night preceding it. A look at Indian royalty next to an English character who was everything but. Some very early work from Ireland and from southern Africa. And we solve a couple of recalcitrant revisits that had traps laid in the clues along the wa...

Season 10, Ep 3: This week on The Final Word, a long and uplifting conversation with a man who really has done it all in the professional game across nearly six decades, known around the cricketing world by a simple moniker: Bumble. Always ready with a laugh and a story, always willing to give a kind word, and loved accordingly. Before that we look at how Australia's players are getting on in the...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Today: a Dusty Old Bastard with a very particular trick. A deep dive into some of the finest slow merchants ever to operate out of India, a look at a couple of speedsters from either side of the ditch, and a Final Word familial link to Bodyline. All before a trip down Root 66.  Your new Nerd Pledge numbers:...

Season 10, Ep 2: The IPL has been cancelled, Sri Lanka won a Test series, and there was a bonkers county round. But honestly all we really want to do this week is hang out and chat with Elly Oldroyd. She's done everything as a sports broadcaster, from a dozen Olympics to Ashes tours and major tournaments, having blazed her way into the job on the BBC back in the 1980s and 1990s. She's also become...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Today we'll go from what kept Wally Hammond away from the game in 1926 onto Joe Denly's football career. Remember Jack Russell? Let's talk about the other one, the first Englishman to clock twin tons. Worcestershire's finest day on a rival's ground and Deano's final day for Victoria will come before finally...

We didn't think it would come to this. By Week 4 of the IPL, Australia's government has barred flights from India until at least the middle of May. With several teammates having headed home just before the deadline, Glenn Maxwell has chosen to stay the course. He gives the view from inside the bubble. Find previous episodes at  finalwordcricket.com  Support the show: https://patreon.com/thefinalwo...

Season 10, Ep 1: This week Karunya Keshav wrote fiercely about the deafness of the Indian Premier League to the suffering outside its gates. She joins the show to explain the humanitarian disaster that has overtaken India during the biggest covid wave the world has seen. This starts a new season of The Final Word, with the southern summer belatedly concluded in April, and the northern season alrea...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Today: an alliterative match whose final day was unexpectedly spectacular. The only player with a perfect record, nestled within an imperfect record. The return story of one of the most prolific, and diminutive, of all time. Plus our regular rounds through dusty old bastardry and Bannermania. Also, this is...

It's Week 3 of our series with Glenn Maxwell, India correspondent, as he takes us through the move from Chennai to Mumbai, and the increasing worry for players and teams about everybody facing an increasing virus crisis across India. It does seem strange but the TV-only show goes on. Looking back at the cricket, Glenn also tells us about the orange cap for the leading runscorer: how you get hold o...

Season 9, Ep 30: The last show of Season 9, recorded on 420 day, on which we decide to let a live audience pile in via the Patreon page to watch the thing get made over video call. Compression session! Neil Manthorp also dials in to update us about the worsening political fight between a few Cricket South Africa holdouts and the national government, as well as the shock of Zimbabwe legend Heath St...

It's Story Time, our weekly walk through cricket history via your listener quiz challenges. Today: a number that has nothing to do with Stumpy Laird, and a number that has nothing to do with either of the Nawabs. As for the principality of Pataudi, where is it now? We'll find that KISS does not stand for Knights in Satan's Service, and that Jarrod Kimber isn't the only one to remember Ben Dunk. Pl...

Disregard the parts about St Kilda hoping to win a match – that soon went a different way. But otherwise it was a great day to hear from Glenn Maxwell after two influential innings to help win RCB's first two matches of the season. We also got more updates on the advertising shoot schedule, which obviously takes priority over cricket, as well as the pastoral care focus of those running the team, a...