The No Balls Cricket Podcast

We're BACK (again)!

We could make some overwrought metaphor about how we gritted it out to get to 50 and then retired hurt, but are now back to complete the innings. We *could*. But we won't.

Instead we'll just say we're here to laugh at everyone, as always, from our favorite targets like England, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, to new punching bags like Gautam Gambhir. All that, just in time for what could be a shocking BGT.

Here's Episode 51!

Our esteemed podcast has managed to do something Jonny Bairstow wasn't able to do during England's tour of India: get to 50. In a series full of milestones – including a 100th Test for Jonny himself, along with Stokes and Ashwin – we've brought up this special one of our own.

So we paid homage (to ourselves) in a few different ways: taking a trip down memory lane, and even bringing out an OG pod member from before our video days.

And as a bonus, the cricket gave us enough reason to celebrate, and engage in one of our favorite pasttimes yet again, twisting the knife into England as BazBollocks was sent home packing.

England nearly had it. Everything they wanted. A vindication that their stupid marketing gimmick is actually good cricket (even though they only got to this point by dropping the gimmick to play actual good cricket). And then the real England, the one we all know and love and love to make fun of, turned up.

And if you think England's cricket is mad, wait until you hear what happens in the Ranji Trophy.

If you suffer your worst defeat on the pitch in 90 years, is there any way you can still claim moral victory? According to us, there isn't, but we think somehow England could still manage it even after a 434-run loss.

Thanks to the magnitude of India's victory, and some interesting decisions from the BazBollocks strategy brain trust, we had a lot to talk about on this one, so a bit of a longer episode than usual. We just love sticking the knife into England when we get the chance.

India get back in the series thanks to an outstanding innings from Yashasvi Jaiswal...and are England getting high on their own supply?

Also, because we don't know how to stick to cricket on this cricket pod, there's an excellent discussion about climate change and geography – and by excellent discussion, we mean a brief mention that allows some potshots to be taken at familiar targets.

So about those 5-0 and 4-0 predictions from our podcast...

We look back on a wild first Test and how exactly England pulled off the "Heist of Hyderabad". How do India turn things around?

Meanwhile, West Indies pulled off a heist of their own in Australia and we have more updates from the life of Shoaib Malik.

We're back! With perfect timing. After a winter break for us where a lot of cricket happened (and we aren't even talking about the IPL and WPL auctions).

Meanwhile, England are bringing their "BazBollocks" marketing gimmick to India. And we have some sad news about India's favorite Pakistani, who may no longer hold that title.

We put it off for as long as we could, but finally, here we are, sucking it up and dealing with our loss. By which we mean, of course, India's loss at the men's ODI World Cup final. What happened, who can we yell at for it (BCCI), and where do we go from here?

Working against a deadline trying to get an episode in before the World Cup final puts a lot of pressure on us. Thankfully we didn't choke. Unlike...

Maybe let's not go there, and just leave it at enjoying the fact that we got two high-quality semifinals and now it's time for the ultimate heavyweight matchup in the final: India vs Australia.

(Don't worry, we went there in the episode.)

It's time to preview the semifinals. India get a chance to stare down the demons of 2019 and New Zealand, and South Africa have semifinal ghosts of their own to exorcise against Australia. We're in crunch time at the World Cup...or should that be crispy time, Ramiz Raja?