The No Balls Cricket Podcast (No Balls Cricket Podcast)

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.)

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!

After a brief hiatus as we recovered from the disappointment of the last Test of the England-India series being cancelled, we are back! (It was especially disappointing for Sid, as he was going to dress up as Mario one last time for that match, and now Manchester has been deprived of that Test as the ridiculous rescheduled Test has been handed to Edgbaston. We're also still pissed off in solidarity with our Pakistani friends after their series against New Zealand and England got called off in controversial circumstances.

It takes a long time to process these emotions, and we promise this break had everything to do with that, and nothing to do with CSK completely showing us up about our preseason IPL predictions. Who cares about the IPL, anyway.

Episode 24 sees us talk about THAT T20 World Cup match, whether or not we want a repeat, and who we think is winning it all, along with our thoughts on Quinton de Kock, Mohammed Shami, and...Lendl Simmons? Also dear friend of the pod Ravi Shastri gets an award. (We think he's a friend of the pod, on the basis that we joke about him like we would with our actual friends. For example, spot the joke about our man in Guyana, Ian Jagan, in this particular episode.)

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

No Balls Cricket: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts
Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

This is an archival episode from September 26, 2018 covering the 2018 Asia Cup.

This episode is entirely about Asian cricket, since that’s the only thing that matters. Right now. Possibly in general.

India and Pakistan have played each other twice in the last week thanks to the Asia Cup, with the Men in Blue handing out a thumping both times – plus a third, in a lesser-known contest between commentators. So, basically, we’re lording it over the hated rivals all podcast long.

Also, we decided to correct the folly the non-Asian “experts” committed while trying to name an all-time Asian XI for ODIs, with interesting results.

If you disagree with our picks…well, tough. But listen and let us know.

India's decade-long stranglehold on the most fiercely-contested trophy in Test cricket has finally come crashing down. And at the end of this long reign, we come to bury everyone, not to praise them. Apart from Jasprit Bumrah. And maybe Rishabh Pant.

The last two Tests of the tour of Australia occasionally raised hope that India might still pull off an unlikely win, but reality hit harder than Rohit Sharma hit a ball all series. Rohit Sharma's mid-Test interview after dropping himself hit harder than he hit a ball all series. And, quite frankly, that interview didn't hit that hard. At the very least, nowhere near as hard as the edge of Virat Kohli's bat hit the ball outside off-stump time and again this series.

The jokes write themselves, and we get through a few of them while recapping the Melbourne and Sydney Tests. Plus, we finally have an ending to the entertaining saga of the Champions Trophy, and even more reason for Sid to hate on Bangladesh. Here's Episode 55!

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.

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? In the middle of all that, of course, cricket never stops, so we take a look at what's next for India and everyone else.

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.

The whole point of this podcast is that we get together and troll whoever we want to troll in the world of cricket. This time, we didn't even have to do anything - that Test match trolled itself, England, cricket in general. Our best way of paying tribute to a Test that lasted only two days was to do an episode with only two people. Some combination of the Chennai pitch inside man and the official dentist of Guyana cricket (as declared by No Balls Cricket) will be back soon, but for now, Aditya and Siddhant are back to review an absolutely bonkers third Test between India and England.

We are back! After a hiatus due to...well, life, as well as avoiding talking about that one Test match that happened in June that might have been somewhat important, we decided to jump back into action just in time for the India-England Test series. And by in time, we mean after one Test and Day 1 of the 2nd Test is already done. That makes sense, right?

While you ponder that question, you can check out how quickly we managed to do a round-up of a month-and-a-half's worth of cricket. And then how long we could talk about one Test, and the rest of the England series. 

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube!

No Balls Cricket: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts
Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

We know we're coming back from a break, but recent updates from the cricket world make us wonder if we should have stayed off the air entirely. Seems like these days every time we record an episode, Virat Kohli resigns (or rather, "resigns") or gets removed from Indian captaincy from one format.

It's the end of an era for Indian cricket, and though we'd always like to see these things end on a high, it seems quite apt for India that the end has come amidst drama and politics with no one truly knowing what's going on. It also seems, in a weird way, perfectly Kohli that the last abiding memory of his captaincy will be angrily yelling...into a stump mic...at the broadcasters...insinuating that they're cheating him and India out of a chance to win. 

Virat Kohli, you crazy, flawed genius. No Balls Cricket salutes you. 

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

No Balls Cricket: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts
Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

Do you like the IPL? We like the IPL. Sort of. Siddhant hates it but loves the entertainment it provides. Aditya appreciates how it's helped a lot of cricketers but doesn't really care about it day-to-day as long as Mumbai Indians are winning.  

We both do care enough about it to take time off in the midst of an India-England series with implications for the championship round of the only format that truly matters to discuss what is really the most important part of any IPL season: the auction.  

Ian Jagan, the official dentist of Guyana cricket (a title that we've unilaterally bestowed upon him), is back as we talk about the most important buys from the 2021 IPL Auction: Cheteshwar Pujara, Harbhajan Singh, and...Arjun Tendulkar.

IPL season is upon us, and in the spirit of the times, we have a new format for our round-up of the best, biggest, most significant tournament in cricket: T20 in 20, where we round up the week that was in the IPL in 20 minutes. How is this episode still 32 minutes long? Well...we found a loophole. 

Niket, Siddhant, and Aditya pat themselves on the back for their preseason predictions bearing out so far, and we also had to discuss the best moment of the season: Rohit Sharma bowling! 

Sid and Adi would also like to apologize for the delay in this episode, with distractions from the football world, UK pubs reopening, and vaccine doses taking their toll meaning a Sunday recording is coming up on Thursday. We live in strange times. 

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

For those of you who are regular listeners, you know we have a long-standing joke about being "respected" journalists. Aditya has worked in sports content for most of his career, which has included some journalistic work, and Sid...well, Sid is a dentist/surgeon but recently interviewed a cricketing legend, so we'll give him his due there. It's clear how much we love this particular running gag.

So imagine our delight when our exact phrasing – "respected" journalist, with the respected part meant completely sarcastically – found its way into the tweet of an international cricketer. See for yourself: https://twitter.com/Wriddhipops/status/1495076230713917441 

We would like to extend an invite to Wriddhiman Saha to join us on the podcast whenever he feels like it and deems us worthy of interviewing him. In the meantime, in our latest episode, Sid and Aditya have much to say about cricket media in India, not to mention summing up all the cricketing action from around the world – including a few incidents that have done our pod name proud.

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube. And if you haven't watched either part of our Mohinder Amarnath interview, be sure to check it out on whichever platform you're using!

Links:
Joy Bhattacharjya's thread on Indian cricket journalism: https://twitter.com/joybhattacharj/status/1496011738986295296
Mitchell Starc's no ball: https://twitter.com/SportsJOE_UK/status/1493526170670968832
James Faulkner's tantrum: https://twitter.com/ESPNcricinfo/status/1495023462393561094
Spirit of cricket: https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1493904109568765952

No Balls Cricket: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts
Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

This may or may not be the last episode of No Balls Cricket. Are we being dramatic and dumb? Would anyone listening to us think we're capable of such behavior? (Don't answer that.)

What exactly we mean by that, is revealed in the episode, where we also discuss Sid's cricket "escapades", Ashwin's latest tactical controversy, and of course, more of our favorite pastime...dunking on England cricket. Welcome back!

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

No Balls Cricket: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts
Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

This is an archival episode from October 25, 2018.

ICC’s bid to fix Test cricket comes under the scanner, as we take a look at the Test Championship, with all its vagaries and kinks.

And speaking of fixing, news of corruption in the game has been in the limelight in recent weeks, and so we drift away from the evil that India has inflicted upon West Indies in recent Tests to the actual evils ailing the game.

So this episode is all about fixing, although we have no idea if we ourselves can fix anything, or if anything can actually be fixed anyway. Listen for yourselves and tell us.

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?

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.

Does anyone know the difference between Himesh and Kamlesh? Two classic Gujarati names, so quintessentially Gujju that our supposedly "respected" journalist got the name wrong of someone fairly significant: Lord KAMLESH Patel, who is, as that title suggests, a lord, not of the Shardul Thakur variety but one of those actual English lords, but who also got misnamed by Aditya as Himesh. Also, he's from Uganda. But definitely still Gujju.   

On that hilarious/embarrassing note, welcome to Episode 26, where we summarize the two upsets from the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup and make our pick for the winner. Also, in other news, our club cricketer has had an up and down week: on the one hand, Sid got covid, thankfully a relatively mild version; on the other, he's made an interesting discovery on Bumble that now has him hopeful of, er, having a good time. On which hilarious/embarrassing note, we leave you with the actual episode.

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

No Balls Cricket: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts
Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

This is an archival episode from March 24, 2019.

Bad news: we’ve lost our stats and analytics man, technical producer, junior pro cricketer, and resident bad analogy merchant, Siddharth Solanki, who needs a break from cricket as he struggles to deal with the difficulties of trying to have a life while living in the far reaches of Kandivali.

But the show must go on, even after a two-month delay. And Siddhant and Aditya will maintain they were always the smart ones on the pod anyway.

So get ready for some intelligent analysis on the World Cup, a disdainful but still incredibly smart IPL preview, and get this – we’re so smart, we don’t even do the regular IPL fantasy; Siddhant and his friends have created one for themselves. It may have no relevance to the outside world but we’ve even done an analysis of that, just for our loyal Guyana crew.

In other words: we’re back, and better than ever before. (Siddharth will be welcomed back with open arms when he feels like rejoining, but until then, he’s our easy target.)

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 mentioned last week that Rob Moody was our first guest on the pod (speaking of which, please check out Episode 12 if you haven't already!) because we were sure Niket was going to be on again at some point. Little did we know how soon that was going to be proven true. 

Yes, the man who said the Chennai pitch was going to be "English-looking" (the English did like the look of it for the first match) is back. We did let him know what we thought of his pitch expertise (a role thrust upon him thanks not to his knowledge of pitches, but the pitch curator in Chennai). 

But in the meantime, Niket helped us out with our big IPL preview. Everyone's favorite T20 tournament is back, with some major changes but what we think are some predictable outcomes. (We all think Chennai Super Kings are doomed.)

Check it out for yourself and be sure to follow/subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict.

No Balls Cricket: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts
Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

This is an archival episode from August 14, 2018 covering India's 2018 tour of England.

Does anyone really care about cricket anymore?

Seeing India’s shambolic performance at Lord’s, we wished we didn’t. We certainly didn’t want to talk about it too much. A brief summary: everyone sucked, cricket sucks, life sucks.

But we did enjoy taking a trip down memory lane and thinking about our favorite left-handed cricketers, in honor of International Left-Handers’ Day, which was on Monday.

So, listen to us go gaga over players like Brian Lara, Yuvraj Singh, and…Ravindra Jadeja? And take on one of cricket’s newest debates. All that and more in the third episode of our podcast!

THE COWARD IS BACK! That's right, our resident Guyanese dentist, Dr. Ian Jagan, has finally decided to show up, after multiple efforts to get him back on were rebuffed because, we can only presume, he was too scared to talk about West Indies cricket. (He says he's been busy, but we know better.)

Now that he is back, we can get stuck into the post-mortem of West Indies' disastrous T20 World Cup showing, and then even more into where it went wrong for India and what needs to change. At some point, we may have talked about the team that actually won it all, but Aditya's longstanding hate for the Australian senior men's cricket team and especially the man who won player of the tournament meant we felt perfectly justified in glossing over that particular detail. 

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

No Balls Cricket: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts
Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

If anyone thought we couldn't find something to talk about even when there's almost no cricket on, well, you haven't been paying attention. Clearly, we love to talk, and we will find our ways. And thanks to some good old-fashioned ineptitude, drama, and sexism from the BCCI, we had an episode's worth of ranting. 

Women's cricket has been shafted yet again by the powers that be in India, with things coming to a head over contracts, prize money, scheduling, and all manner of disrespect that should be rooted out of the game, and society, but is sadly par for the course even when it's shocking. Sid and Aditya discuss the latest happenings, plus a hilarious county cricket update and the discovery of a unique cricketing nomad.

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

Well, it only took one Test to get us back into gloating mode. In the midst of selection controversies, covid scares, and the specter of batting collapses, India produced a stunning turnaround from the third Test – and even within the fourth Test itself – to take a 2-1 series lead heading into the final Test. 

Siddhant is guaranteeing rain in Manchester for that final Test, which of course means we're getting five days of sun – though that never happens in Manchester. (Now that we've said that, we've made sure it's going to happen.) In the meantime, here's our recap of the Oval Test, as well as some shenanigans from Bangladesh and Pakistan. 

No Balls Cricket: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts
Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

This is an archival episode from December 5, 2018.

We are back after a long hiatus, having enjoyed a well-earned vacation. 10 episodes seemed like an achievement. But here we are, just in time for the India-Australia Test series!

Basically, this episode is all about who’s the king of cricket. Whether it’s wondering if Test cricket is like the monarchy (yeah, we don’t get it, either), or if King Kohli will reign Down Under, or which India-Australia moment rules the rivalry.

There’s a distinct monarchy theme, all thanks to one of our panelists, who henceforth shall be known as The Monarch, making a huge stretch to complete an analogy. The sort of stretch that leads to injuries, like the one our brains suffered after hearing this.

You’ve been warned.

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.

This is an archival episode from July 29, 2018 covering India's 2018 tour of England.

India had questions to answer before their warm-up game ahead of the first Test against England. They have questions to answer after it.

Thankfully for them, the big question about the Test series at the moment has absolutely nothing to do with them. England stole the headlines by picking Adil Rashid in their squad.

What were they thinking? Who knows. The one tangible benefit of that decision is this: you get to find out which one of us got blocked by Michael Vaughan on Twitter.

Find out about that, along with our thoughts on the India-Essex game and England's squad, in Episode 1 of our podcast.

In true No Balls Cricket fashion, we have yet again cut it fine with a series or tournament preview. Two, in fact, as we've also got a preview for the three Test series that are going on in the world at just about the same time, which is going to be up in a day or two...after two of those Tests have started. In the meantime, we've got a special episode to preview the women's World Cup (which actually began this morning).

Australia are the clear favorites for the trophy, but that was true in 2017 as well, until Harmanpreet Kaur happened. So while we're in awe of how stacked that side is, there are plenty of candidates to pull off the upset, and we run through them all.

Speaking of Harmanpreet Kaur, India have had a tough go of it in ODI cricket in the covid era, as has she herself. And of course, they're not helped by BCCI being an utter sham of a cricket board when it comes to supporting women's cricket. So, you guessed it...it's time to rant!

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

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Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

This episode carries special meaning for us, as friend of the pod Rohan Das tragically passed away last week. 

In his honor, Siddhant was joined by fellow friend of the pod Aayushraj Soni, with Aditya and Ian out this week and Niket still in hiding (we haven't forgotten about his completely bogus inside information about the pitch for the Chennai Tests). 

But Sid and Aayush didn't miss a beat, with enough jabs about Dinesh Karthik, the England cricket team, and the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium, not to mention what has become the usual complication of recording right before the start of a new series, so that our genius panelists are previewing matches that then get over before the episode actually gets published. For the record, Sidstradamus' prediction of India's Men in Blue winning the ODI series vs England 2-1 is still on, after they won the first ODI. (Aditya wants it on record now that his pre-series prediction was 3-0 to India, and he sees no reason to change it after the first match.)

Check out our latest episode, and be sure to follow/subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict.

Lend us your ears, we come to bury England, not to praise them.  

That's right, India wrapped up a series win, booked their spot in the World Test Championship final, and Aditya and Siddhant are here to celebrate. There is some hint at serious analysis along the way, but largely we've taken the same tone as some of the shitposters who have made Ravi Shastri's supposed drunkenness a source of entertainment for everyone: this is time to troll.  

Listen as we do exactly that, and as Shastri said, have a drink on him. And another one on us. And then please recommend some good Indian restaurants in Manchester for Siddhant.

So, uh, that'll teach us to gloat too much. India's batting collapses left some egg on their players' faces, and some more on ours – which is a particularly bad look if you're dressed up as Mario. As Siddhant was while in attendance at Headingley. 

If you want to see how that looks, check out our Instagram...and Mario was back for a brief encore on the pod. Which was back down to its pared down, 20-minute limit, because when we can't gloat we tend to talk a little less.

No Balls Cricket: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts
Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

Big news - we're moving up in the world. We're now on Spotify! And Anchor, Pocket Casts, and Podcast Addict as well.

In honor of this huge moment of a plucky, fun-loving group doing big things, we have a special theme for Part 1 of this episode: the West Indies. We even have a Guyanese guest on the pod!

Tune in to watch us run the rule over the West Indies' stunning whitewash of Bangladesh, and then, of course, talk about India's big win over England that set everything right with the world again.

Just how powerful are the BCCI and Jay Shah? That question was important enough to ask even when we had a magnificent India win to review. Would you put it past the new ICC president to engage in some destabilizing of Pakistan that had nothing to do with cricket just to come up with a less controversial reason to move the Champions Trophy out of the PCB's home base?

Oh, and there was that Test win. We talked a bit about that, but it can really be boiled down to this: Jasprit Bumrah is a genius.

Also, this entire episode features a silent but pretty cool guest: a dental assistant robot, dubbed TOOTH-E, fresh off of helping Sid do wild stuff in Aditya's mouth. No, it doesn't do cricket analysis, but it's part of the NBC family now.

This is an archival episode from August 29, 2018 covering India's 2018 tour of England.

We figured waiting until the end of the fourth Test would be depriving you of our dulcet tones for an inhumanely long time. That, or we just like the sound of our own voices.

So, here's a quick preview of the Southampton Test, where we run the rule over some of India's young guns and wonder what England are doing with their openers.

We've convinced ourselves that our T20 in 20 format is a genius idea. It certainly rolls off the tongue, and sounds exceedingly clever — 20 minutes to talk about a 20-20 game, how smart! — and there's nothing we like more than a clever, smart-sounding idea. So without further ado, Siddhant and Aditya are back for a second round of talking about the IPL and asking the important questions, like...are CSK good again?

While we're having a little fun talking about the cricket, though, we'd also like to extend our thoughts and condolences to everyone affected by this never-ending scary pandemic, which has taken a turn for the worse in India and elsewhere. As two Indians living outside the country, it's been harrowing seeing news filter in continuously, and we can only imagine how much more so it is for everyone back home. 

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

This is an archival episode from September 16, 2018 covering India's 2018 tour of England.

We’re mixing things up a bit, splitting this episode into parts. Supposedly this is supposed to make your life easier.

So, the Test series is over. We’d like to forget about it, but we have to talk about it first, so we did. That, plus the Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri power nexus comes under scrutiny – or is that just the Kohli-Kohli nexus?

Also, the Asia Cup is on. India are going to win. Right? Or is going to be Pakistan and our worst nightmares coming true again? Who knows.

And Australia have invented cricketers to replace the Sandpaper-gate trio. We’re serious.

Listen to all of it, listen to some of it, whatever floats your boat…just tell us how good we sound afterwards.

It's rapid fire time. We tried setting a time limit on ourselves. And failed, but not that badly, so maybe we actually succeeded? We'll leave that one up to you.

Aditya's back to round up the India-England ODI series with Siddhant, who along with dunking on the England cricket team, is also taking the challenge to an English royal. With good reason, we believe. Surely he's sexier than Prince William?

For context, and general shenanigans, check out our latest episode! And be sure to follow/subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict.

This is an archival episode from September 6, 2018 covering India's 2018 tour of England.

We’re as lost as India at the moment, after the disappointment of the fourth Test.

So, the series is gone, and after one more match, Alastair Cook will be, too. But we don’t think the former England captain’s retirement is the biggest one to make headlines this week.

More on that, as well as our preview of the fifth and final Test, in Episode 6 of our podcast. Enjoy!

We've come to the realization that our podcast is sort of a cricketing grim reaper. Apparently, the two of us, without even trying, have an outsized influence on events in the cricket world, an influence that ends up having some severe repercussions on high-profile cricketing figure (again, please remember that this is without us actually trying). 

Why do we think this? Well. Our episode releases just happen to have coincided with resignations and sackings in the last few months. So we've decided to give ourselves an award...along with handing one to Kevin Pietersen. But, before that, there's an actual episode to get through, one where we talk about all those England and Australia resignations and sackings. We promise we take this newfound great power we've discovered with great responsibility. (Was that a deliberate Spider-Man reference, or did we just stumble upon it? We're revealing nothing.)

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube. And if you haven't watched either part of our Mohinder Amarnath interview, be sure to check it out on whichever platform you're using!

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Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

The team was down a key man. Others weren’t in the country, either. And so, it looked hopeless, if not already over.

We mean us. We’re baaaaaaaaaaack.

As far as overcoming absences and coming back when it never looked possible, can you really top a podcast returning after no episodes in two years, with one member deciding to bow out entirely and the other two leaving for different parts of the world?

Oh. Right. The Indian men’s cricket team did something similar, apparently.

But…but…we’ve switched to video! It’s a new and improved No Balls Cricket! We’re going UNFILTERED, for Christ’s sake!

Fuck off, Aditya, you’re trying too hard. Nobody cares. Just get to the point.

India pulled off an upset for the ages in Australia, and we were buzzing for so long after the Gabba Test, we decided it’s time to bring back the podcast, so we could actually rant and ramble on video instead of just talking to each other on WhatsApp. What a win. What a series. What a team.

So, time for our first episode in nearly two years, and our first video episode ever. We decided to celebrate on video and we don’t care if the Aussies feel bad. You can finally put a face to the voices you’ve not been hearing. And to make it better, we decided to forget sounding intelligent or professional or insightful.

Welcome to No Balls Cricket, unfiltered (which, as you can guess, really just means we’re going to swear on air and we don’t care what you think about it).

This is an archival episode from June 5, 2019.

We’ve redefined the concept of a World Cup preview, in that we waited until almost every team has played a game, and some teams have played two, to get started. Hey, if it works for the Indian cricket team at the World Cup, why can’t we do it, too?

First off, a special message to one of our favourite Pradhan Dental Care patients, Virat Kohli: win or lose, your teeth will always be in good hands. But please win.

Did that seem like a shameless sponsor plug? For the record, one of us actually works for PDC. So…yeah, it was a shameless plug.

Anyway, with Pakistan shocking us all, we had to do a take two on our World Cup predictions. And we’re still reeling from the latest shock: Sri Lanka beating Afghanistan. Upset central at the World Cup. We haven’t even gotten to Bangladesh beating South Africa.

And of course, there’s a new version of the fantasy game SP and his Guayana crew came up with for the IPL – where SP finished second after a seesaw battle that went away from only after Delhi lost to Chennai in the second qualifier. He’s still one of the favorites for the World Cup version, where some of the teams that have been picked are…interesting.

Oh, and now an international cricketer knows about our podcast. How’d that happen? Find out on the pod.

We mentioned last time that, in true No Balls Cricket fashion, we were releasing a preview episode just in time for the start of a tournament or series. Well, hold that thought. We may have gotten the Women's World Cup preview out ahead of the tournament starting (or rather, on the day it started, and after the first match had begun), but we have outdone ourselves with the next one: our preview of the three men's Test series going on across the world simultaneously. With the first Test over in two of those series.

In fairness, it's not entirely our fault. Some blame lies with Sri Lanka, too. If they had put up a better fight in the first Test against India, this episode would be going out at the end of the match, rather than two days after it had already ended. Maybe India need to follow the lead of their neighbors, as Pakistan prepared an absolute road for the first Test against Australia, making sure it lasts all five days. (Getting a result, seemingly not as important.) At least the West Indies vs England series hasn't started yet. (It's about six hours away at the time this episode's releasing.)

Anyway, without further ado, here's our preview of all three series as we look forward to an exciting month for Test cricket.

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

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Aditya: Twitter
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The moment two years of Test cricket has been building up to is here. And so, just in time, hours before the World Test Championship final is set to start, we have a podcast to preview it. If you're wondering why so late, well, please check in with our new panelist Phil for an answer.

Key points: Niket is not on this pod, but more importantly, he had nothing to do with the pitch for the final, which means we should have a good match. Also, we recorded before India announced their XI, and, shockingly, Sid and Aditya both predicted it completely correctly. Not really shocking that either of us was right, but just the fact that we agreed on something...that never happens. 

We also had our predictions. And...Sidstradamus is good at those, which should mean good things for India. But in any case, should be a cracker of a match. 

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

This is an archival episode from August 24, 2018 covering India's 2018 tour of England.

India finally showed up, blowing England away to make the Test series a little more competitive at 2-1. It was such a good performance that we completely forgot about Jos Buttler's maiden Test century. That's what happens when significant achievements are also inconsequential.

We hope you enjoyed Part 1 of our interview with Mohinder Amarnath! Sid and his dad were clearly enjoying themselves as they spoke to the legend about his cricketing days, and why wouldn't they be – sat in Goa chatting cricket with one of the best to ever play for India. That's the dream!  

There's a lot more to come, with more tales from the 1983 World Cup and cricket around the world – here's Part 2!

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

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Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

Okay, we had our serious episodes with the two-part Mohinder Amarnath interview, which of course we LOVED doing and are extremely proud of, but we had to get back to the basics after that. Which for us meant our favorite pastime: laughing at England.

Welcome to our 2021 review show, which doubled up as an Ashes review show, and England featured prominently all around for how colossally embarrassing they were all year. Aditya's back after missing out on the Goa fun and the whole interviewing cricket legends thing, which he's quite upset about – that might be the reason he gets more digs in at England at usual. Enjoy.

And if you haven't caught the interview with Mohinder Amarnath yet, Parts 1 and 2 can be found on YouTube here and here, Spotify here and here, Apple here and here, Anchor here and here, Podcast Addict here and here, and Pocket Cast here (you'll have to navigate to the episodes manually on Pocket Casts). And as always, listen or watch and subscribe on any of those platforms! Also, you can watch Sid's appearance on the MADTherapy Sessions podcast with Arib Deshmukh here.

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Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

The IPL is off for the time being, after the powers that be finally saw sense and realized how big a risk this whole endeavor was in the middle of a pandemic...especially after the pandemic started hitting home. 

So our latest T20 in 20 discusses the fallout from the postponement and where the tournament could end up being played in the meantime, along with a round-up of the world of cricket including updates from Zimbabwe, who are still a Test-playing nation despite what some incredibly smart people have to say. (We're talking about Rameez Raja. Sarcasm switch very much on.)

Hope everyone is staying indoors and safe, and our thoughts go out to anyone who's lost a loved one or been impacted in any other way by covid-19. 

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

WE'RE BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK! After a long hiatus as we moved around in the world, we finally figured out how to do a long-distance pod. Just in time for the men's ODI World Cup. Sort of.

Anyway, your favorite duo, Siddhant Pradhan aka the club cricketer and Aditya Devavrat aka the respected journalist, is here to make fun of England and Pakistan (and maybe look at the rest of the World Cup after the first two weeks). Welcome back to the madness!

This is a big moment for No Balls Cricket: our first-ever interview with a cricketer! Sid's dad, Dr. Suchetan Pradhan (who, it should be noted, is our chief sponsor – or, to be more accurate, head dentist at our chief sponsor, Pradhan Dental Centre) does a bang-up job as a stand-in journalist. Our newfound in-house expert on 1970s and 80s Indian cricket has earned an official No Balls Cricket nickname, the "Indian Tony Cozier". 

But enough about Sid's dad. Our guest today is the legendary Mohinder Amarnath, a Test batting great known for his exploits against the fearsome West Indies fast bowlers, as well as being the man of the match in both the semi-final and the final of 1983 World Cup. Jimmy Uncle, as he's affectionately known, is also a close family friend of the Pradhans, and Sid's first-ever cricket coach. If Sid starts winning matches for the University of Manchester, they know who to thank. 

The two Dr. Pradhans caught up with Mohinder Amarnath in Goa over the winter. Without further ado, here's part one of our interview. 

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

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Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

The curse of the podcast production turnaround time strikes again: we bring you an episode recorded before India were officially knocked out, but could only be released after. Good thing we didn't make any bold predictions about India winning the tournament in this one. (That's not sarcasm/self-deprecating humor, we were actually that dejected about India's slim chances.) There's also a post-mortem of some of the other disappointing teams (our good friend Ian Jagan's was with us in spirit for the West Indies review, if only because he was too cowardly to be there in person) for whom it matters not a jot that we are releasing a few days after recording. 

We also get into the shocking racism scandal coming out of Yorkshire Cricket, whose treatment of Azeem Rafiq has been appalling, and whose response to the investigation into their treatment of Azeem Rafiq has somehow been even worse. Racism has no place in cricket, or society, yet it exists, and now all eyes are on how the cricketing establishment in England responds to this latest display of discrimination and shockingly incompetent administration. 

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

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Aditya: Twitter
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This is an archival episode from October 4, 2018 covering the 2018 Asia Cup.

India won the Asia Cup. Apparently this was important. They also have a Test series against the West Indies going on. Apparently this is also important. Oh and Australia are playing Pakistan in UAE. (You know where this is going…)

But yes, well done to the Men in Blue, especially for the amazing achievement of making us seriously think about the possibility of Captain Rohit Sharma.

What is actually important, however, is that we’ve followed up our Asia XI for ODIs from last week with a Rest of World XI. And we had to record that part twice because two of our three experts, won’t say which two (but let’s just say they could both be called Sid) decided to leave Brian Lara out the first time.

We did end up getting it right, though, or at least, so we think. Have a listen for yourself.

In the true spirit of India’s upcoming series against England, we’re one-upping the London busses: no podcast for two years, then two episodes in two weeks.

If that particular cliché made you groan, wait until you get to the end of this episode, where we showcase our sense of humor at its finest.

In the meantime, we have a new third man, better than the old third man in so many ways, but most importantly because he brings us inside info from Chennai, venue of the first two Tests of the India-England series. The lowdown: while they attempt to avoid blundering their way to more humiliating defeats, England might like how the Chepauk pitch looks. Of course, we are not shallow people, overly obsessed with looks, and we’re certain that a shade of green on the pitch won’t save England from the horrors that lie underneath the surface.

Here’s our India-England preview, with an honest, frank assessment of England’s ability to bowl good spin and bat against it, and a surprise left-hander being tipped to get a recall into the Indian XI, if only to calm everyone’s hearts, especially his own.

We are BUZZING after this episode. It's our coolest one yet!

For the first time, the No Balls Cricket Podcast has a guest! (We're not counting Niket, who 1. Fucked up his pitch tips so badly we'd rather forget him and 2. Is supposed to be a regular contributor more than a guest, and will be back soon.) 

Rob Moody, of the robelinda YouTube channel fame, with his extensive archive of highlight videos, joins us from Melbourne to talk us through some of his funnier video titles, his favorite memories as a cricket fan, and most importantly, whether his son can become a bigger YouTuber than he is.

We had so much fun having Rob on and recording this episode, so we hope you do while watching/listening! Check it out for yourself and be sure to follow/subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict.

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Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

We've ditched our 20-minute format this week, because 20 minutes is not enough time for the amount of gloating we want to do. Not after the way  India beat England in the second Test. Plus, if Jasprit Bumrah can take what is supposed to be a 6-ball over, turn it into a 10-ball over, and that extra time is what ends up defining the match, we think that's a template we can follow too.

We might go back to 20 minutes for the next episode, who knows. The future is as unpredictable as England's squad selection. In the meantime, here's an extended episode recapping + celebrating the result at the home of English cricket. 

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Aditya: Twitter
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There was a big update from West Indies cricket just after we recorded our last episode, and we thought we might do a live episode to react to that. So we did. Except, four days later. And not live. Great job, us. 

But now that we finally got ourselves together, Ian took his chance to gloat about West Indies' 3-0 win over Sri Lanka in the ODI series and react to the Test captaincy change, and then tell us to put on our best camera faces. For all that and more, check out our latest episode, and be sure to follow/subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict.

There was no repeat of the last miracle at the Gabba, but India not losing that Test might be its own version of a miracle, helped by the rain gods and a rollicking innings from "bowling all-rounder" Akash Deep. Given the state of India's batting, he might get a promotion to bat in the top 7 at this rate.

The Test ended up being more notable for what happened off the pitch, with one of India's greatest-ever cricketers bidding farewell to international cricket. We pay tribute to Ashwin, and look ahead to the rest of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Cricket had its own version of March Madness last month, with three Test series going on simultaneously and the month culminating in the Women's World Cup. We'll review that thrilling tournament in a special episode, but for now we're focusing on the Test cricket that we saw, or didn't see, given how some of it put us to sleep.

Can you blame us? India were dominant against Sri Lanka as one would expect, and the first two Tests both in the West Indies and in Pakistan were absolute snooze fests for the most part. The third Tests were where all the action was, as England did England things in the West Indies, and Australia gave us a special performance in Pakistan that also produced memes galore.

Here's our review of all three series, along with a special tribute to the beloved Shane Warne.

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

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Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

Some of you may have noticed that though we claimed to love our new concept, a pod in 20 minutes, we often (code for always) go over our self-imposed 20-minute time limit. You're absolutely right. And to know what we think of anyone pointing this out or, even worse, complaining about this, well, meet our newest panelist, Phil. Phil has a handy response to all such criticism. 

Speaking of criticism, Ollie Robinson has come in for plenty. We give our take on the now-suspended England seamer, as well as the ICC's new tournament schedule, which comes with one much-loved (for us, at least) format change. 

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

This is an archival episode from January 22, 2019.

Let’s face it. Virat Kohli is always the biggest story in cricket. Either he’s letting his bat do the talking, or he’s actually talking.

So we decided with our 2018 review pod: no talking about Kohli.

That’s right, the man who has just become the first player to win all three of ICC’s main mens’ awards in the same year features the least in our episode. Mainly because we just accept he’s God and move on.

Meanwhile, plenty else happened in cricket in 2018. There was something about someone using sandpaper. There were new stars made. There was history created.

Oh and yeah, there was Virat Kohli.

Without further ado, here the No Balls Cricket review of 2018.

This is an archival episode from August 9, 2018 covering India's 2018 tour of England.

Virat Kolli got his first Test century in England. Unfortunately, everyone else in his team forgot how to bat. That, plus Sam Curran's wizardry with bat and ball, saw India lose the first Test by 31 runs.

Listen to us talk like experts about the first Test, preview the second, and more in Episode 2 of our podcast!

Having come back after a long time, we've decided that we need to freshen this podcast up by doing something we didn't know we're capable of: sounding smart. So this pod has Siddhant busting out stats, Aditya talking about "process-based analysis", and...a lot of shit-talking about the teams we like talking shit about, still, because we can't not do that. But we did smart analysis too. We think. We'll let you decide.

Remember the time when Indian men's cricket was having a glorious moment? A miraculous series win in Australia, winning series across all three formats against England at home, reaching the World Test Championship final, winning (technically) a series in England...how long ago was that? What? Just this year?

Hard to believe, when it seems like at the moment it's just going from crisis to crisis. Well, one prolonged crisis over the captaincy, with a tangentially related crisis, the crash and burn at the T20 World Cup, thrown in for good measure. Because since September, the men's team captaincy has become a huge source of controversy, with two icons of Indian cricket taking center stage: Sourav Ganguly, a former captain himself and current BCCI president, and Virat Kohli, current captain – of, now, only the Test team, as opposed to three months ago, when he was skipper across all formats. And that change in the state of affairs has led to Indian cricket becoming more of a rumor-based drama than Gossip Girl (or so we think, given that we haven't actually watched the show and we're just guessing what it was about based on the title). 

Sid and Aditya break down the colossal clusterfuck that has erupted thanks to the BCCI forgetting a basic skill – communication! – in our latest episode. 

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, and Podcast Addict, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube.

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Aditya: Twitter
Siddhant: Twitter

After a ho-hum first half of the group stage, the World Cup has really kicked off over the last week. Our favorite rivalry just had its biggest controversy that has Siddhant potentially causing geopolitical incidents, and even that got overshadowed, by arguably the greatest innings in men's ODI history. And amidst all that, India are humming along, giving us great joy thanks to a certain bet-winning innings.

Ian's back, which can only mean one thing: we're talking about the finer points of dentistry in Guyana. Like, for example, whether West Indian batsmen have the precision to deal with good spin bowling. Or if the ultimate blunt force tool that is Chris Gayle still has a place in West Indies' T20 squad, sacrilegious though such a question may be. 

Yes, we're doing another West Indies focus this time, quick on the heels of our India-England Test series review. The team from the Caribbean just beat Sri Lanka in a fun T20I series, and at the time we recorded were just about to begin the ODI leg of that series. Which is a key distinction to make simply because we made predictions before the first ODI but are publishing the episode after, and to maintain any semblance of propriety we must declare such things. Siddhant even recorded a special disclaimer just to make things clear. 

We've got our first live episode coming out soon about the latest big update from West Indies cricket, but until then, enjoy!

This was supposed to be another special episode, or at least one with a guest, since we're previewing the India vs West Indies series. Talking West Indies cricket usually means having a certain dentist from Guyana on, but, surprise surprise, Dr. Ian Jagan is a... (you know what the word is).

Given the chaos that has gone on in Indian cricket recently, previewing any of their series is a difficult task, not least because of the confusing selection decisions for both the T20 and ODI legs. But we just about managed, and we've got some predictions to put to the test as well.

We also got the chance to make Justin Langer's day, which, given events that transpired after we recorded, actually was an important thing to do. As much as our resident Aussie-hater Aditya hated it.

As always, listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, and watch us and subscribe on YouTube. And if you haven't watched either part of our Mohinder Amarnath interview, be sure to check it out on whichever platform you're using!

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Aditya: Twitter
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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.

Long before he became respected journalist (and now disrespected former journalist, apparently), back when Aditya was just starting off as a sportswriter, he had a client who liked to say: expect the unexpected. It’s a lesson that should have stuck, so that you can avoid egg on your face from doing stupid things like predicting a 4-0 whitewash of England only for India to lose a home Test against England by a whopping 227 runs.

So now, after James Anderson managed to find the one cloud in Chennai and the one spot on the pitch covered by said cloud, and Jack Leach discovered his favorite pair of Specsavers between innings so he could see where on the pitch to bowl on Day 5, India are suddenly sweating about reaching the World Test Championship final. Which looked a foregone conclusion after they won in Australia.

This disastrous Test loss was enough to get us back together for an express episode, just so Siddhant could let us know which Indian player is quickly reaching Dinesh Karthik status in his mind, and we could make more predictions.

Were we any smarter this time around? You can see for yourself…

India had another nightmare pink-ball Test, but it included a moment that is our podcast's raison d'être: a wicket off a no ball.

The past week was a banner week for those, which made for an awards section we were eager to get to...but not before we asked the real, tough question, the kind that we've become famous for: does KL Rahul have a Jay Shah sex tape in his possession?

That, somehow, wasn't the only sex tape mentioned in this episode. Who knew cricket was such a...fertile breeding ground?