Emergency Podcast: WE DIDN’T THINK WE COULD LOVE CRICKET ANY MORE!

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Pop quiz. What's in your kid's lunchbox? At Whole Foods Market, they've already done the studying. Over 300 food ingredients are banned from their shelves. No hydrogenated fats in the peanut butter and no high fructose corn syrup in the cookies. And for sandwiches, there are no synthetic nitrates or nitrites in any of their deli meat. So you can pack lunchboxes with peace of mind. Get back to school ready at Whole Foods Market.

0:35BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. Hello and welcome to an Emergency Tailenders live from the Richie Benno commentary box at the Foster's Oval. This is G-Force. We have Match in Tendorka. We have Felix White. And soon we'll have Jimmy Anderson. Hello, Tailenders. Hello. Hello. Go World Cheers. What commentary box are you in, Greg? The Richie Bernot commentary box. Beautiful. That's a bit of you, isn't it? Thanks, Mark. Morning, everyone. 22 for two. Fantastic day at the Oval. Pure theatre. Pure drama. And India with a famous victory here. I honestly don't know where to start with that. Pure needle, pure theatre.

1:23We are currently, me and Sharkey, have broken into this commentary box to record an emergency tail enders. Just off the back of that most unbelievable test match. I think it might be the best test match I've ever seen. There's not really, I can't remember anything much better than that, really. Well, quickly, Greg, let's talk about you personally, because quickly, you were on holiday, weren't you, for a second? You've come back to watch that. I am on holiday, and as the minutes of this podcast tick by, the marriage is more on the line. There's more on the line in this marriage than there was in the series.

2:01What's the winviz like on your marriage at the moment? 67 % divorce. Yeah, but as India approved, that's never totally correct. So just keep believing. The game is never over. I am going to Mohammed Siraj my marriage this afternoon. You should go back to Bella and say, I'm going to Mohammed Siraj this. Yes. and turn it around. I will. I'm sure she'll appreciate that. I'm going to, on the train back, which is about two and a half hours, I'm going to plan the most amazing afternoon, evening and day tomorrow to make up for all of this. But it will all be forgotten. But it was completely worth it.

2:42There were about 20 ,000 people in the Oval earlier today. Queues around the block. All the roads closed around Kennington. And just so many England fans, so many India fans. it was loud you've heard it on the commentary and on the telly and stuff but it was loud in here and there was just there was just something those first 10 balls had like the most amount of drama of the whole week it's crazy the crazy like two two two two shots for four and then and then a wicket the whole place erupted the whole place was alive today and you sit there and you think am I a mug for turning up on a cloudy day on a Monday at the Oval to watch maybe 30 runs be knocked off?

3:26And within two minutes you go, no, I'm not a mug. It's always, always, always turn up to the cricket. Jimmy's in the lobby. Hang on.

3:34Felix White:Hello! Hi! Jimmy, where did you watch it from? Were you snoozing and then... On my bed, yeah. Oh. Watching your own trophy from your bed. watching your own trophy for careful Ian Botham got in trouble for that didn't he

3:57we've all been there what are you thinking

4:05Jimmy what are you thinking what do you make of of a 2-2 in the first ever Anderson-Tendulkar trophy series.

4:16Felix White:I feel like England probably edged the series, but India, each time they've been down, they've sort of fought back, haven't they? Old Trafford, they managed to hang on for the draw, which meant that this game, there was something on it. And then that spell last night and then this morning was some of the best bowling you'll see. Oh, Siraj has played five tests, Jim, hasn't he? And bowled 85 across the whole series. Just a quick word, because the interesting thing about this series really is from our perspective we arrived india arrived with everyone talking about no one but bumra and we're going to leave this series all talking about siraj so it's testament to how well he's bowled really all summer yeah he's bowled well in in patches i think you know if bumra was fit for five tests it might the series might have a different outlook but the thing about siraj i know he's taken he's bowled some good spells but he's um i think he's averaging over 30, which you'd expect someone who's leading wicket-taker to be averaging maybe less, so that tells me that England have actually played him quite well at times for most of the series.

5:19Felix White:But yeah, I think for him to especially, not dropping the catch, but stepping over the line with the ball last night and then showing the character to come back last night with the ball and then this morning, I thought it was pretty special. Great theatre. Great theatre. It was a big drama i was thinking about it as i had a wee to calm myself down after the final wicket and i sort of i don't know how this will sit with everyone but i sort of don't mind that england lost that because it was so unbelievable just to watch it was just it was an unbelievably good test match and sort of i weirdly quite like that siraj had the final the final blow after that catch which could have which could have completely blown it for india but did i just think there was a lovely story up so it wasn't there with that today am I allowed to feel that am I allowed to feel that?

6:14Absolutely I felt exactly the same I felt like and it's his trophy so he dictates how you feel about it I think it would be like 2-0 was definitely the fair result and I think that's one way we're going to look back and we're going to remember this series for a very long time and I think one thing we're going to remember about it is how close every session has been and so for it to end two all I think is perfect really because 3-1 just wouldn't have it wouldn't have felt right I think India have almost been in front more often in this test series than not and there's been moments where it feels like they were completely dead so the fight that they've shown even today I mean it's like it's unbelievable when those first balls went for four and they felt like in England might score this in two overs but they had very specific plans by one outside that I've stumped, were getting the ball to hoop.

7:05It was in the rain. They would have had to have done a lot of like recalibrating overnight to do that. So I just thought it was really, but Joe, one thing I want to quickly make is it is incredible how much cricket speaks to people outside of cricket when something like Chris Wokes happens because him just visually him walking out with his arm in a sling, going the bat the wrong way around I was having so many texts from people that watch a little bit of test cricket but don't just go and this is in as a visual gladiatorial image and it's a sign of bravery and we'll I was I'm out in New York doing a baseball and we had a production meeting yesterday and I couldn't not have the cricket on because it was so good and while we were talking about the baseball Xavier Scruggs who's like a brilliant baseball player does a coverage of me you guys know he was watching the cutaways of chris wokes in the sling and and and then he suddenly became really really interested he's like the dude's gonna go out with a broken you know arm type thing and so in his head he was starting to talk about chris wokes like the gnarliest boxer he'd ever heard about so it was like the penny was just dropping with him like how insane the bravery you have to have to do that and just jim quickly on chris wokes i was because you know him much better than we do like can you imagine that feeling of going I mean I was so glad he didn't have to face a ball and get bold or something and feel like it was on him like do you know what I mean like did you have yeah I think I was I was more nervous about him facing a ball than England

8:36Felix White:yes exactly yes definitely I was actually quite glad it ended the way it did just so he didn't have to face the ball because like you could see when he went through for that first single that he was in so much pain. Yeah. And I just can't even, like I'm scared when I bat anyway, nevermind with one arm tied behind your back. It's literally an incredible thing. But I heard, I think it was, was it Joe Root the night before saying, like there wasn't even a question for Chris Wilkes. He was like, I'm going to bat. Like if we need, if we need me at the end, I'll bat. He said, will he bat? He was like, I assume so.

9:09Yeah. He's like, yes, obviously. It's reasons like that and Joe Root with his 100, Harry Brook with his 100, the Graham Thorpe tribute on the Friday anyway, but then Joe putting the headband on, the Siraj drama, the umpiring sort of made the whole thing even more insane than it needed to be today. They were rattled, weren't they, this morning? They were rattled this morning. For all those reasons, as I was making my way to the ground today, I thought to myself, I didn't think I could love cricket more than I did, but after this series I love it even more. It's amazing that it's still getting better as a thing and you can still fall more deeply in love with this thing.

9:52What do you make of how it ended, Jimmy? Where were you sitting this morning when you put the coverage on and you thought 34 to get, four wickets. Did you think that there would be a twist like this or did you think Ingram would knock it off easily?

10:09Felix White:Well, I was due to be training this morning but the weather in Manchester is not ideal. Really? That's a surprise. I was playing Call of Duty in bed. What? What is your life, man? The trophy's named after you. I looked at my phone and it was six minutes past 11 and Jamie Smith was already out. You weren't locked in? Well, I was after that. I better turn my trophy on. Yeah. We might be doing tailenders later. I better keep it. Oh, my God. Were you playing Call of Duty against Sachin? Yeah, me and Sach. On the head pieces, we better switch over, actually. This is the real Anderson Tendorka trophy.

11:00Yeah.

11:01Felix White:What was the question? I mean, I think I've got the answer. You didn't mind or care which way it was going to go, but which way did you think it was going to go? I just, I think that's the day yesterday. I think that's the, you know, sort of highlights why we love Test cricket. Because England were absolutely cruising with Brook and Root at the crease. You know, Brook looked like he wanted to finish it very, very quickly. And I mean, his whole innings was brilliant. But then it changes so quickly. And then all of a sudden you're like, oh my God, you know, another wicket here. And it could be interesting.

11:31Felix White:And even at 30 odd to win, six down, I think we were. It's like, this should do this. It's only 30-odd, a few boundaries. And then even when Tong and Atkinson were batting, and you're like 17 to win or 18 to win or something, it's four boundaries and a couple of quick singles. It's not... You could do it in an over. It just shows the pressure, the pressure that that situation creates. And I agree with the umpires were under that pressure as well, but then I don't think that helps either team. when they start making bad decisions. Bang, bang, bang. I want that to be out. Yeah, but even Overton got given out, Kumar thought about it for about three days.

12:19But to the point where Siraj had given up the appeal, he'd be like, oh, well. He was walking back to his mark. He had enough time to be like, what do I want this to be? I would like this to be out. You know what the real question was in his head? He was like, what's going to be better theatre? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. That's out, actually, I realised. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so can I do... Go on, Jim, sorry.

12:46Felix White:I was going to say that I feel very lucky that I've actually been on both sides of that. So I've been... I played in a game where we won by 14 and I was bowling, got the last wicket. But I've also been out at the end in New Zealand not long ago when we needed two or three to win. I remember staying up to watch that. And I was the last one out. So it's kind of, I've experienced both sides of it. And it's obviously incredible when you win and you get over the line. But when you lose, you feel like you've let everyone down and you feel flat. But I do feel like in this team, in this England environment, they'll think, you know, they've done their bit for Test cricket.

13:27Felix White:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's still in the back of their minds that we're trying to get people to watch it, bring new fans along encourage the next generation to play the game and I think games like this today will definitely do it on that point is a really good one because I think this series has been fantastic for that because firstly there was an anxiety with Coley leaving the Indian side him loving Test cricket so much that they were going to drift a bit away from that it's been shown this summer how much this new Indian team is going to care about cricket and be committed to it which is incredibly heartwarming but we know the England team have that.

14:03But also in terms of just watching the whole series, we've seen pretty much everything Test cricket has got to offer in really rapid succession. We've had really great visceral fast bowling from Archer and Boonra, fantastic swing bowling in English conditions by a number of bowlers, including Indian ones. The batting disciplines have been incredible because we've had really old school, orthodox, technically perfect cricketers, Lara Hall getting runs, Gill, people like that. And then you're much more like inventive, adrenaline-fueled, modern batting, Pant, Brook, I could go on, Root scored runs.

14:42So we've almost seen every single type of cricket you can see in English conditions. The only thing is like, maybe not that much spin, but we've also had that Bashir moment where he's broken a finger and then he's taken that wicket off Suraj, which feels like about 10 years ago, to win that game. so you've almost seen encapsulation of all the disciplines of test cricket it happened really quickly and every session have felt like it's gone back and forth it's been very rare that one team's really dominated even a day so all of that has just made it I don't want to say great advert for test cricket but you were saying Greg you didn't think that you could love test cricket more but it provides for you that feeling of like it goes to show why no other sport can do what we've just seen over the last two months and why we love it so much and it's part of our lives.

15:31A huge part of our lives and disrupts our lives. I mean, look, you're in New York. Jimmy, you were playing Call of Duty. Matching, I don't know what you were doing this morning. I had to take the day off to watch it. I had to take the day off for it. Come on, matching! My marriage is on the line for it, but you're so right, Fee. The on-field stuff was not only extraordinary with... This is, by the way, this is the highest scoring five test series ever in terms of runs. Yeah, amazing. So we've seen a lot of runs. We've seen a lot of wickets. We've seen 50-50s. There have been 50-50s in this series.

16:06And then three successive hundreds for Joe Root. 21 centuries. 21 centuries. To add to your great list of things, sort of the return of Ben Stokes with the ball. And then the return of Ben Stokes with the bat as well. And having an amazing series with that. But the other thing is that all the off-field stuff's been so fun. I'm looking at the head groundsman, Lee Fortis, on his little tractor, just preparing the pitch to the right of the test batch wicket. And that was the first story of the Oval Test, was the Gambier-Fortis little thing. Was it Vish that tweeted saying, it looks like when all the wrestlers are trying to throw the big show out of the Royal Rumble?

16:45No, that was Rory Dollard, a great observation. the clip with Indian, because for people that aren't aware of what Greg's talking about there, Lee is very protective about his wicket, as he should be, as the groundsman at the Oval. And he thought that the Indian team were getting too close to it the day before the test and came off and told him off. And the Indian team swarmed him and told him he's only a ground curator, which is their phrase for it. Gambir was pointing his finger at him and saying, and they had a standoff. And then Lee ended up doing a series of videos with Indian journalists.

17:19but got him, he's now viral in India. He's an absolute sensation because he doesn't want people looking at his pitch. But the interview was, he kept being asked questions like, what's the problem with Gambier then? He went, I don't know. You'll have to ask him. You'll have to ask him. Just getting higher and, I haven't got a problem. You'll have to ask him. I've not got a problem at all. And then the beautiful full circle moment was that he was in, did you see that shot of Siraj when he dropped the catch off Harry Brook on the boundary yesterday? was right in front of the groundsman's little dugout.

17:51And you could see, if you look back at the replay, you can see Lee's face in the corner of the shot just grimacing as Siraj took it over the boundary and stepped on the boundary. Then I want to give a shout out to the guy in the light blue collared shirt who was giving the most sarcastic, loud, in front of his face clap in front of Siraj. of all afterwards that crowd down there Jimmy you must have fielded down there a little bit they're right on you aren't they they're right on the boundary that lot

18:28Felix White:yeah I feel like they're right above you and you can hear pretty much everything that's said great Joe it's interesting because it was like we talked about the similarities with 2005 and there was a nice it felt like that similarity there was going to be that Shane Ward in 2005 having taken more wickets than anybody else in that series, having single-handedly won games for Australia, really. Well, not single-handedly, I'd have to take that back. That's not true. But like, bowled up magnificently. He dropped that KP catch, a snippy few member, which was the definitive moment of that test. And it felt like Siraj, for all his effort, was going to get punished for it, really, by stepping over the boundary.

19:06But it was like real sort of poetic justice, actually. But he came back this morning and bowled as beautifully as he did. Because he has provided, I don't want to say the word theatre, but he's provided a lot of charisma and energy and sort of peripheral feeling to the whole thing so it's nice that he ended up smiling, you know? He's the one bowler in the series that if you're a kid watching or a grown-up actually watching, you would most want to be like him. You would copy his action, you would copy his mannerisms on the field, you would copy his drama, you'd copy his faces when he's sort of mugging to the slips or whatever.

19:44but that's the guy that has lit up the series, really. And there's a lot of chat, isn't there, Jimmy? I'd love to get your take on his skill as a bowler because there's so much chat about his charisma or his dedication or his bravery or his warrior-like attitude. But actually, he's just an incredibly talented cricketer who's got a lot of runs and is like a world beater, clearly. He's got a lot of wickets. What did I say? Runs. Runs. He didn't get many runs.

20:13Felix White:yeah he's always been a really skillful bowler he's done well in England in the past he can swing the ball, he can nip the ball and his pace generally stays the same and you can see with the way they bowled today and last night during that Brook and Root partnership the speeds were slowly dropping you think right they're done here, they're cooked you get that one little sniff of an in and then the speeds are back up nudging gently up to mid-80s and then this morning they were late 80s i think siraj bowled one at 90 as well today so he's got speed he's got skill he swung it really but as soon as the ball started swinging you know he's accurate and and skillful he's got he's not got an in-swinger but he he like bowls a wobble sort of wobble seam with the shiny side on the leg side to sort of shape back into the right hander.

21:07Felix White:Yes. Yes. And he just, yeah, just really, I think you put all those attributes together and he, like you said, everyone talks about Bummer at the start of the series but Siraj comes out as India's best bowler. Yeah. With like retaining your speed, Jim, over sessions, we've seen that a little bit where like new fast bowlers to test cricket come in and they struggle, they bowl the first spell up at their usual speed and then the second first spell in the evening so they're you know it starts to decrease is that something you have to learn over because there's obvious reason for that which is probably fatigue but is that just like in preparation or as mindset thing or you know what i mean like what's the no it's just so the i think the reason their speeds went back up last night and this morning was because of the adrenaline like they realize they're back in the game the confidence goes up the you know that adrenaline starts surging through your body we've got a chance of winning a game here and all of a sudden you start feeling better as a bowler when Root and Brooke are batting as a bowler you're like everything's aching your legs are wobbling because they're fatigued then all of a sudden you get a little bit of a sniff and I don't know something just comes through comes over you and you're like wow we're back in the game here so you just find something deep inside you that's so interesting and that separates It's the champions, I guess, doesn't it?

22:32You've got to find that thing at that exact moment. And there's been a lot of that in this series from both sides. Pop quiz. What's in your kid's lunchbox? At Whole Foods Market, they've already done the studying. Over 300 food ingredients are banned from their shelves. No hydrogenated fats in the peanut butter and no high fructose corn syrup in the cookies. And for sandwiches, there are no synthetic nitrates or nitrites in any of their deli meat. so you can pack lunchboxes with peace of mind. Get back to school ready at Whole Foods Market. Did you talk about Harry Brook? Yeah. How much of that did you watch yesterday, everyone?

23:14Did you, what were you managing to see of that? I watched a fair amount of the hitting, which was brutal. Do you know what, it was really nice to see. What I thought was nice about it is it just allowed Joe Root, just about like Joe Root did. Jimmy in the last week very accurately described watching Joe Root as watching whale music. And I think it felt like it put Joe Root at ease just to do Joe Root's thing. Do you know what I mean? While Harry Brooke was just like smashing the ball everywhere. There's like an interesting discourse after it about his shot selection at the end that got him out.

23:51But I always feel like that's so misguided because everyone's praising him for the 111 that he's got. Which has been by exactly the same discipline. So you can't say, oh but that one shot do you know what I mean? Like it's sort of yeah You can't really have one without the other can you? You have to have both But Jimmy Barney and the Guardian called it hoodlum cricket Yeah the hoodlum 100 Great description

24:16Felix White:I think I don't know I was watching I watched some of the early shots and even when he was dancing down the wicket he seemed so controlled like he wasn't trying to smack it for six or smack it out of the ground he kept his shape and actually played the situation brilliantly there was a little bit of C movement a little bit of swing, a little bit of bounce but he was negating that and putting pressure back on the bowler so that they don't bowl their grouping's not as good because when someone's doing that to you it's hard to find the right length when people are running at you, moving around the crease so I thought he played the situation brilliantly he knew that Rooty was in at the other end, he knew that he was just going to do him, I think he's one of those players, you get a feeling when he's going to get 100 and I think that's what Harry Brook would have thought.

25:03Felix White:Rudy's nestled in here, he's going to get 100. He'll probably see his home. So he could just play the way he wanted to play and put pressure on him. Sorry, I got distracted then because the legendary Andy Zoltzman just walked in. They're literally behind you in shot. It looks like he's drinking champagne. Zoltz, do you want to come in? I'll tell you what Zoltz is drinking. Say hi to the tail end. Hold that up to what you're drinking, Andy. Celebratory vinegar Malt Is it single malt? Andy It's single malt Andy give us a stat bomb Can you give us a stat bomb please? What's your favourite stat bomb of the series?