Kumble Korner

India redefine how to play Test Cricket

Super Joshi and Nakul Pande discuss India's extraordinary win in the second test against Bangladesh in Kanpur. What is means for the future of test Cricket both in India and abroad and who inspired the way the test had been won.

They chat Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jaiswal and Gambhir. They also preview India's chances of winning the Women's World Cup

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Broadcast on:: 02 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

(upbeat music) Hello, there was rain. There was no drain. So needs must, the ball was red and white, but they played like the kit was red and the ball was white. The head of the cricket association was there, but not with a pitch dryer. He had a fork and was eating papaya. And then there was Charimaji Gabida. Told his boys, will that bat lack of fursa? His World Cup mentality just smashed the ball. Forget recency bias. This wasn't basketball. Practical, adaptable, batting. So wagging in spirit. Quick hit the runs. We can take the wickets. It was horses for courses. Just cricket with cahones. Cahones the size of butterballs. Welcome to the Gumbelay Corner. I'm super Joshy joined by Knuckle Bande. Before we go any further, let's just remind you to hit subscribe below if you're watching this on YouTube or follow wherever you are getting this on your podcast app Spotify or anything else. So bang the leash. Thank you. Tata bye bye. Well played. Don't cry. Knuckle Bande. (speaks in foreign language) (laughing) I wasn't expecting that. Wonderful in case you are wondering if you've stumbled into that poet rap battle in Mughalayazam. Then yes, a poetic intro to a ridiculous game of test cricket. That's yes, pretty much. But had, you know, people talk about slow over rates and people talk about fans getting short changed and people talk about tours of India lasting a very, very long time. I think we barely got a full day's worth of test cricket across the two, sorry, a full test worth of cricket across the two matches. We had less than two days worth of cricket in this test match. Very much with a slow, slow, slow, slow, quick approach. And I think what, what India been able to do to make a result of this is pretty remarkable. And there are very few other times in India's test history where they have been able to even contemplate doing this, let alone actually pull it off against anyone. Bungalayaz were also trying to win this game. They were also playing with invention and they were playing with an eye on trying to hurt India rather than trying to slow them down or trying to make an eventual defeat less embarrassing. And it was after three days where, frankly, this, anyone could have been forgiving for this game, sort of floating out of their memories and them concentrating on the week ahead. We got a modern mini classic. Yeah, that's a great way to describe it. I think it's important what you said about Bungalayaz. They weren't just trying to hold in there. They were, they were going for some kind of result. I mean, where should we start with this? Because the, the play, should we say, the performance was quite emphatic. Maybe we should start with the administration, primarily because Mr. Shukla was just so front and center on the TV screens. Whilst I think it was DK who said, I think he said some of like 35 overs were bold over the last two days, not including the first morning, which is quite insane. Well, that, so it was 35 overs across the first three days. Oh, sorry, of course, the first three days. I've got the first three days. So Bungalayaz resumed on day four, 107 for three or 35 overs. Yes, Rajiv Shukla, who is a BCCI Vice President and just happens to be from Kanpur was. Happens to be, isn't he the head of the UP Cricket Association? Yes, I'm using Happens advisedly in the way that, in the way that the BCCI or the former BCCI secretary now president of the ICC happens to be the son of the home minister. A lot of things happen in India. Yeah, he was out there defending his patch, saying things along the lines of, let's not go along the lines of, let me actually find the quote. So this was on Friday evenings of Saturday. This is at the end of day, in the end of day three. So it was day two. Yes, sorry, so it was the end of day two, sorry. The history suggests that no match has been abandoned here in Kanpur. There are many venues in the world where because of the rain's match has been abandoned. So here for two days, the match couldn't take place. I don't think there should be too much hue and cry. He blamed the fact that the Uttar Pradesh state government only on the ground. Although, however, the stadium itself is responsibility of the U.P. State Association. He, so there's a lot of finger pointing, you know, there's three Spidermen, but all in those ill-fitting white short-sleeved shirts with pens in the top pocket and ink stains that all administrators love wearing. The he ended by saying, sometimes it happens, though we all pray to Lord Indra, not to rain, but you know it happens and it happens throughout the world. So why unnecessarily Kanpur in Green Park has been blamed for something, which is in nature's hand. So that was that was Chukalankal and his and his take on things about the fact that, yes, there was a lot of overnight rain at times. There's a few things that wasn't actually very much rain throughout the actual hours of playing days, days two and three. And during the course of this game, we saw Lords go from absolute deluge to playing in a couple of hours. I understand and, you know, for all the talk of heritage grounds and yes, Kanpur is an old ground. Lords is also an old ground and he's also, you know, slightly confusing ownership situation. So and potentially going to be an actor. So yes, if a certain senior cricket writers in in certain now pay walled cricket magazines have their way, yeah. Yeah. So, yes, all of the so that's what it was for the first three days. It was, you know, people talking about lost tests, well, test championship points and people talking about drainage and why can't you hire an army of underpaid people to cover the ground and in top Orleans, like they do in Sri Lanka and roofs on stadiums and isn't it a shame the good people of Kanpur couldn't have any Sunday cricket for their Sunday and, you know, bureaucratic blame games. And then suddenly the sun came out and for and then we had 140 overs across two days of really damn good cricket. Yeah, I'm going to pick you up on a couple of things. That took uncle said, firstly, blaming Lord Indra for this is a bit harsh because I don't think he would have given Lord Indra any credit had it worked out well. He appears to be saying that Lord Indra either didn't direct anyone, didn't leave a forwarding address in his out of office or was or simply was too busy or that either that or he's or he's inadvertently real that the BCCI out of favor with Lord Indra in which case something must be done. Yeah, that's that's a highly worrying situation. If the BCCI can handle that kind of situation, that kind of upper management. The BCCI don't have many willing allies here in the terrestrial realm. So, you know, you can't go alienating your your support base like this. Yeah, keep your DIV does on site. That's just generally the way things work. Again, and he should be able to manage upwards. Look, if you wanted to have it in UP, look now is somewhere that is, you know, there are a fair few test matches, blade is a bit of ground. It's not an excuse. I don't think that you couldn't manage the drainage. And if you if you couldn't have an army of under paid people to cover in tarpaulin, at least you could have had them to mop it all up. Act some kind of with some soup, soak and device. So that was a whole shambles. And I say this because on podcast, we've obviously acknowledged and this is again, a topic for the future we will we are going to talk about how Jay Shah got his job, but the things he's done with it. And last week, we were giving them credit because with regards to pensions for older cricketers, you know, when a time when there wasn't the money in the game and kind of a lifeline for them and other things like eventually getting the women's IPL. So we're not one of these podcasts who are constantly slugging the BCCI off or anyone because actually there's a balance with everything. But in this case, it is absolutely our right to criticise them because this was, I mean, had India lost points and not and failed to qualify for the world test final, the World Test Championship final. It would have been a cock up similar to the abomination of a bomb under what I call it, the World Cup final last year. It's unforgivable like it did. And it reminds me and I suppose it's just maybe indicative of where India is right now in its development as a whole, that it's progressing. It's doing well at certain things, but there is just certain things that needs to improve on and it just isn't there yet. And maybe getting drainage and being able to pick the right kind of test stadiums as one of them. Yeah, I don't mind particularly the idea of rotating test matches around different venues. I think also, though, that's despite this being unseasonal rain as well. But even then, I don't think that's necessarily an excuse, sorry. No, no, and look, a lot of grounds around the world are going to have to cope with the fact that rain forecasts and historic rain maxima are going to become fairly useless quite soon in a lot of places because of climate change, which is which is a worrying time for a lot of teams. I mean, just here in the listeners, we will get onto the actual cricket, but we do need to discuss this because pitches are important. Yeah, particularly when they're underwater or not underwater and no one is not being tended to. Where's that in the UK? Whistashur gets flooded every year, doesn't it? Yeah, and Worcester have had to talk about, but it's much, much worse. I think it's it was something that happened every now and again, but it's becoming almost an annual occurrence now. It's it's seriously accelerated in the last few years to the point where Worcester are going to have to quite likely move our way from new road, the ground they've been up for a long time because it's just not going to be sustainable. They can't keep foot in the foot in the cost of cleaning it up from flooding every single year. Maybe we can do some kind of knowledge partnership with Kanpur about how to do it. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, if you add, if you're throwing the Lord's drainage, the new road cleanup crew and the Sri Lankan ground. I thought you meant that you went the Lord's drainage about. No, no, no, no, you actually were talking about that. No, no, no, no. Insert the name of your least favorite city for wherever the Lord's drainage is. But if you insert the drainage at Lord's, the Worcestershire ground staff clean up crew and the Sri Lankan tarpaulin wallers, and you would never ever get days lost to wet out fields ever again. So yes, another something that must be done. But the the lack of responsibility taken for ensuring that your grounds can recover from bad weather, the palm of it off onto other people, the hiding behind the fact that it's an old ground and saying other places lose days to to weather and rain. It's not just Kanpur. Why is everyone picking on Kanpur? The the covering of back size, rather than the taking responsibility and actually doing something about it. Or at least trying to do something about it, which there was no visible sign of for some time. Does not reflect well on the upper management of the BCCI and the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association and whoever else was involved in in the fact that we had to wait for so long and that India and Mongolia should be quite so proactive to actually make this a game worth worth talking about. But once we did actually get some play, we India seem to know exactly what to do kind of instinctively and exactly how they were going to how they were going to achieve it. But with with that and with ball, you know, a lot of teams would have would have thought, OK, try and, you know, the first point, try and take Bangladesh, where it's quickly find that much is obvious. A lot of things might have then thought, right, we'll try and back through into tomorrow and back once trying to get 150 ahead and try and get 200 and something ahead and try and back once. The risk with that is that then Bangladesh can slow up the game and you might end up running out of time. India didn't do that. India decided to just bat as quickly as they could and trust themselves to take 10 more wickets on a pitch that was lively, had been sweating under the covers for a while. Where with a bowling attack that was well rounded, that ended up being, you know, a lot of people thought that, you know, black soil pitch and pick three spinners ended up being completely the right attack with the three seam bowlers for for the wicket. And a wicket that is going to take some movement is obviously something the judge is going to operate well on and Ashwin is Ashwin. So you and then you had the batters able to both plan and execute scoring beautifully, irresponsibly fast. Yeah, actually, yesterday, you know, fastest ever team, 50, 100, 150 am 200, 250 is one or it was close. I don't know if it was 250. I'm seeing certainly certainly certainly up to certainly up to 200, which is pretty remarkable. You know, changing the batting. Well, so Richard punk comes in at number four. OK, it didn't work. It felt like it felt like 20 like IPL, Richard, where he's kind of is a bit slower versus his normal test batting. Yeah, but it was absolutely the right thing to do. And just the way that you talk about T 20, you know, road showmo just clicked into it, you know, he he switched gears internally and was almost making a point of going out there and trying to hit trying to hit sixes, you know, hitting is I think he's only the forced person ever to hit his first two balls of an innings in test cricket for six. Yeah, it seems so. And then he another couple and and Jess, while showed again, how dangerous he can be and how how hard he is to stop scoring. Yeah, and it was it was it was pretty pretty remarkable to watch yesterday and even today, you know, you lose a few wickets and you might think that you go into your shell and we've seen teams do that before. And India just kept on attacking, thinking that they that they would not be able to they wouldn't be able to lose enough wickets quickly enough to to give Bangladesh a real a real sniff. And once they got once they got one partnership, the game was over and so it proved. Yeah, it was it was I mean, remarkable is exactly the word India kind of, I guess, look, they thought we need to put time back in this game. Road Shum is a approach reminded me a little bit about how we played in the World Cup last year and also the one day, the 50 of one and the 2021, where it was it wasn't about personal milestones. He knows, look, you know, I'm getting old. This is my last chance of doing something half decent. So he would come in and just start slogging. He gets out, he gets out, but he's he's setting a strong platform for the team. And at the end of the day, he got, what, 23 or 11 or something. I just set the tone and suddenly the rest of boys that hold on. And I think Ashwin spoke about it at the end. One of the guys, I think it was Ashwin who spoke about it in the in the presentation was like, I should probably just see where, you know, we had the speech from Rohit about whatever, go get the wickets and come back. But then he came in and hit six and then hit another one and we're like, right. OK, we got to do something about this. Because of recency bias, the inevitable comparisons with basketball will come up. But it reminded me of Viren Sewa. And particularly, we spoke about this on the chat on our WhatsApp group. 2008, about a few weeks after the horrific attacks in Mumbai, where the first test was cancelled and I think the England team went back and then they came back for the match in Chennai, where England were on top, like all the way through, I think it was up to the fourth day. Remember, he says, Nick, right? Viren Sewa came out, just talked it around. And he and I remember KP clearly saying afterwards, like he put time back in the game, because what do you do? Like when a guy plays like that. And it just reminded me of that there was only one way to put time back in the game. And Rohit has said, like, if we got out, we got out, I think maybe they were also backing themselves that if if it's a draw, it's a draw. But also, if they do get out for anything less than 200, they back themselves to get Sri Lanka, sorry, Bangladesh out cheaply enough to then come and chase on the final day. I think that that was that was part of it as well. And, you know, we've got, we've got to bring this up. But what do you make of the comparisons with Bazball? I mean, is that is that even there? Because this, like, I could be my opinion, Bazball is an approach pretty much to everything, this was more adaptive and they're like, all right, well, this time we'll play like this, they're not going to do that every time. No, I mean, a lot of talk about what Bazball is and isn't and even if it's a if it if it's a thing. Yeah. And, you know, it has the way England to play has changed in the, you know, what two of it years now that it's been the brand of a column and then stokes have been in charge and, you know, like all philosophies, you might go a little bit but you might have to, you might have to overcorrect in order to actually instill yourself with the with the belief that you can do it. You might have to take it a little bit further than it really needs to go. It also has to be seen in the context of it's a reaction to what came before wearing them became very timid over over 18 months in test cricket. But that's a that's a separate discussion. It did remind me a little bit of England in Pakistan towards the end of 2022 where on some very, very flat pitches, England had to bat incredibly quickly to give their bowlers time to bowl Pakistan out on some unresponsive pictures. So there the time is being taken out by the pitch here. It's been taken out by the weather and the conditions. So it and and that's what you know, that's what basketball who want to call it. That's what attacking batting is. It's the idea that and you know, you can take this back to Australia, making a real point of trying to score over four and over in their first batting innings to try and give their bowlers time to win the game. You could argue how much time Warner McGrawing Gillespie and Lee needed. But but you know, those were, you know, the early, the early to mid 2000s and the Australian teams in the Pontican Clark. You know, those are some quite flat pitches. They were playing on largely and a four baller attack that couldn't necessarily take the, you know, they didn't have an all rounder to take those extra overs for them. So it's it is a tactical approach of your of your gifts and your abilities to not just technical, but you're also you then mental, you you you stop the opposition thinking about taking wickets. You stop the opposition thinking about winning the game, although Bangladesh, I think with the bat with the bat, you know, they got criticized for some over attacking batting, I think, by my commentators and even their own coach, try to go out there, a singer post match was talking about, but he he he was talking about it. But he was talking about it in the context of they just sort of executed it better, which I think is right. I think that this Bangladesh were never really in with the chance of winning this game, but they all but they I think they just do deserve some credit for not just trying to spoil and not just trying to slow India down. You know, the way mom and all batted yesterday was terrific. Brilliant, brilliant 100. Chubman Islam played really well today. And Matthew Hussan with ours in both innings with the with the ball and a little bit with the bat as well, they gave it a really good go. Yeah, they they simply weren't, unfortunately, good enough. And India with that India were were that much better, particularly with the with the boy, you know, all of the bowlers can contributed at various points. And if you've got a guy in your match, if you've got a guy who'd made a century against this, it's Indian attack. I mean, you didn't just turn up for the fun of it. You definitely got a credit to do that. Yeah, they were in a decent position at lunch yesterday. Hmm. They then lost four for six to mostly just be warm, which can happen. Yeah. And, you know, India took a couple of really, really good catches. Catching was great. Yeah, I, you know, on that, I want to say, I think Sir Raja's catch, which is one I didn't catch at the match or something like that, wasn't as good as show was for me because if for me, it's a bit, I mean, maybe this is being harsh, but it's more of him not judging the ball correctly, but then covering it with a with a good jump. Whereas Sharma's was closer and it was more instinctive. He stuck his hand out and he's not known for that kind of athleticism. Yeah, I think we're sure most catch was better. I probably go along with that. Jess while took a really good catch in the slips in Bangladesh's first innings as well, which I which I which I throw in there. Yeah, I see a large a little bit like the Ben Stokes catch in the in the 2019 World Cup, slightly misjudged the catch and then got himself out of it with a brilliant bit of athleticism. Yeah. And also it was a very, very badly misqueat shot by Shaka Balhasan. A mush record who who hit that shot to show me in the first thing. So let me get that, let me get that right. It was where we got it. It was Linton Das, sorry, Linton Das hit that quite well. He was trying to hit that there and road Sharma could have slightly baited him into the shot. Yeah, I would I would clatter it slightly above suit arches just because say that probably could have made that catch a little easier on himself. But there was a real. There was a really good marriage of intensity and ideas with India, with the ball in that first punctuationings. Yeah, I have a second to and a second to be fair, although Bangladesh weren't didn't play as well. It made it look as though. Bonger, they were just trying to react to whatever India were doing. And it's hard to be that reactive for that long, particularly when you're up against a better team, certainly in the in his first inning state got a bit stick from commentators, even their own about how the field was spread out. But at a certain point, you kind of need to do that. And actually towards as the the ball slowed down, that kind of made sense because there were a few catches on the boundaries. I think that definitely I think Gill as well. Yeah, I mean, India, we're trying to hit sixes by the end. So it becomes a catching position. Nathan Lyons has just been giving a masterclass disguised sports, you know, which I urge anyone to look up. It's a four part they've released four episodes to find brilliant. And he he's been talking about how boundary captures are like to spinners, what third fourths and gullies are to fast bowl as they're catching positions, because that's like where the ball is likely to go. And also and frankly, you know, Jess, while it's three, fours in the first over row, it hits four of his first six balls for six. There aren't many captains who wouldn't put the field back at that point to try and slow India down a little bit. That, that seemed a very harsh criticism. Yeah, in the second innings, well, it was this morning. It was quite funny. They had a catcher for Royal Charmers. How he got out sweeping, trying to get a six. Two balls later, Gill's in, he actually hit it the same position, hit it for a six and they didn't have a catcher there. So sometimes, you know, they've obviously bought the field in for the new guy. And he's he's gone and done what his captain did essentially two balls earlier and got got the runs. So, yeah, you need to, I guess, sometimes you just you just play it as it goes. And yeah, there's only so much you can do when you're defending 95. Yeah, right. And that's that's part of it. And then the second innings, Bangladesh got bundled out in the first innings, they made a good fist of it, but but, you know, this attack had been rested. I think they'd been playing pickleball as well. I heard that that got the and one of the other coaches were beating Gill and I think someone, Gill and someone, I think, they would lose. They were getting beaten in pickleball by the coaching staff on the Sunday. I think that wouldn't pickleball racket is quite wide and quite soft. I don't think the beating would hurt as much as with some other implements. Well, yeah, I don't think it was lit. I mean, I think we mean in the sport or not, not physically. And then they use kind of Indian, Indian school system punishment in the cricket team anymore. I don't think but I wouldn't spike to chapels. Yeah, I didn't realise that the pickleball paddle obsession among coaching staff had spread to India because there aren't many sort of top football coaches now who don't play pickleball and paddle and stuff like that. I think it's what, I think it might even have been what Stuart James Anderson, but James Anderson, I think, in Stuart Broad played paddle, I think, the morning of Anderson's last test or something, it's become a real thing here. But yeah, boom, rub on magnificently at the start of that Bangladesh second innings. It was really unlucky not to get, not to get more wickets. We saw Bangladesh didn't quite know what to do towards the end of their, towards the end of day four. You know, the night they send the night watcher in and then he has a wild hacker ushwin and gets bold. There were some reviews that weren't really on that they got a little scrambled and that, and that can, and that can happen. There was more men who had backed so well in the, in the first innings. That I think the loss of, oh, nudge him all trying to reverse with Judd Ager and losing his leg stump, getting bold around his legs. Was quite, quite significant. And when you've got a pitch that's where there's some seam movement and Judd Ager's knack of being able to bowl at pace, get the odd one to turn, get one not to turn and makes him very, very difficult. It's, it's been a long, you know, we're, we're well past the area of uncovered pictures. You know, I don't remember the area of uncovered pictures at all. But you really counseled playing Derek Underwood on a, on a drying uncovered pitch. And it, there, Judd Ager has a little bit of that to him. Boomerah finally got his, his, his, his little bit of luck when, or finally, it's a really good delivery. He started, started getting wickets. And you know, his, his, the last, obviously when they extended lunch this morning for the, for the second innings and, and it looked, he bought a couple down the leg side, he looked like he was suddenly getting, getting to him is what they were saying in the commentary box. And I thought he's just trying to find it. And then what did you do, blow out a middle peg? Yeah. Yeah. And, and Bona, they went from 91 for three to 94 for seven. Yeah. And then the game was pretty much pretty much on the other one. I thought that beautifully at times, some really, really delightful shots. But, you know, I actually did his, did his thing. It's on wickets to go hit a couple of sick protective sixes as well. Yeah, a couple of big, got a big hit towards the end of that. Got, got those of us who miss Amish Yada, kind of, you know, a little bit misty-eyed, like, oh, second coming of Amish. Hmm. Yeah, remains to be seen how good a boundary field he is. I mean, something that somebody always enjoyed with Amish, who had to be restrained from throwing the ball over the stadium at times, the absolute catapult of an arm. But the momentum is so overused, but the, the force was with India quite quickly today. Um, and it, it was a slightly more low-key version of what India had done in England a few years ago, where they, they sort of suffocate the opposition. Um, it's, it's a way we haven't seen India have to win in India for a while in, in this run of 16 straight series wins. Um, and it chose, you know, again, we talked about this at the end of the first test match and others talked about it as well. Right. You need everything to go for you in, in India now to avoid losing to India and India and Bangladesh didn't get anywhere near enough going for them or play anywhere near, anywhere near well enough. Um, and the fact of India proactively going against type and going out to their comfort zones to force, to force a win is, is something we haven't really seen. Uh, I guess just gives you don't lose huge chunks of games to rain in India. Uh, you know, even, even, you know, there's, again, there's only so much you can say about a chase of 95, but, you know, you saw very coldly coming down the track to spinners, which is not something we've seen in test cricket for, uh, for a while. I think a few sweeps as well. Yeah, exactly. Um, and we, uh, and if this is a sign of greater flexibility and adaptability, then I think that's, that's very welcome. Um, uh, India being too strong, who played quite well in patches was about how we'd expected this series to go. Yeah. Um, but the, the circumstances of this win, you know, just to what we will move on to other, other matters, but, um, including to Marston's for Jedi, which we haven't even talked about yet. But yesterday, over 400 runs and 17 wickets in a day. Um, that doesn't happen in India very often. No, it just doesn't. Do you want to talk about it? Did you damage it then quickly? Yeah, three hundred, three thousand club. Um, so he's what the second fastest in terms of matches to get there, uh, after both them, uh, second highest difference between his batting and bowling averages over the players in that club. Um, and. Isn't he one of the highest left, huh? Left. I'm in the, uh, we could take this as well or something like that. It's also going to take you for a while. Yeah. So it's head, Arthur and Vittoria ahead of them. Yeah. And he's not in about 60 wickets behind Vittoria is he's quite behind. I think her art is what 436 or something for four 33. Yeah. So he's, um, he's not pro, he's not likely to, uh, to get there. Um, in, in terms of just one final sort of, uh, illustrative stat, 15 players have taken 1500 plus runs and taken 150 wickets. Jedi has a bigger difference between his batting and bowling averages in the first innings than any of them. So it's, it shows, I think what that shows primarily is how Jedi can almost get into India's 11 as a top seven batter, even without his bowling and in certain circumstances will actually be used as that. I don't think he is quite in India's top seven pure batter, but he's, he's closer than most people we think of as true all rounders. Um, and. You know, we talked a lot about Ashwin after the first test, rightly. So in his ridiculous numbers, um, Jedi just numbers, uh, and his, his impact and his, uh, utility and the luxury that he gives captains is, is pretty special as well. Hmm. Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, he's, he's been doing it for a while as well. So there's a, well, I guess the numbers wouldn't be there otherwise, but, um, it's not, well, what I mean by that is it's not been kind of bitty. Sometimes you have players who were right for, you know, for fits and they'll fall off for a while and then maybe come back. He's generally been there throughout. I mean, um, sometimes to our disappointment, when Ashwin gets benched for him in the world test final, but that is, that is what it is. Um, did you see the stat? I don't know if it's just a meme. Some people, sometimes you see things, but apparently, and we've got to mention this for our friends and really, and apparently Ashwin's got the same amount of, amount of the match awards is really there. Man of the series, yes, man of the series. Sorry. Yes. 11 man of the series awards as, uh, as the great morally. Yeah. Um, that's quite something. And he's also got his own in the YouTube channel now as well, especially, you know, I remember last couple of weeks ago I was talking about lamenting, not being able to speak Tamil. He's kind of listened and thought, you know what? For this match up, I will talk in India. Thank you for that. Yeah. Triling, triling will YouTube channels. Even professional broadcasters don't do that. It's something else, something else. Um, talking of which Bangladesh Wiki book kept saying a year. And I always thought that was like a South Indian thing. And I hope he wasn't kind of culturally appropriating or, or, or kind of trolling in any way, because that was slightly annoying for me. I was like, no, this is not you. You don't speak like this. Don't do that. Maybe it was just, maybe it was just trying to, you know, how sometimes if you're, I'm, I'm not multilingual, so I can't speak to this personally. But, um, I've heard of players who will deliberately sludge in a language they know the opposition can understand. Yeah, that happens. Uh, also, Linton Darce is one of the very few Hindus in the, in the, uh, in the Bangladesh side. So they may have been, so there might have been a, a cultural background thing that he was, uh, that he was going with there. Maybe, maybe I think the other guys, I think generally they understand Hindi a lot anyway, like in the first test, and we completely forgot to talk about it last week, but, um, Curly was talking to, uh, two Shakubalas. And, um, he talked about, uh, the bowler. He goes, does he think he's a malinga? He said, he said something, uh, I think Nellie Milly or something like that. Um, does he think he's a malinga? And then he said in Hindi, Yorka, Yorka dara to Shakubalasan, who obviously understood because he wouldn't speak to me in the otherwise, right? Um, maybe because they're, you know, as, as joked about in the first episode. Um, you know, if you want to speak bad Bengali, just replace everything in every vowel with an O. Yeah. And an S with an S H. I was thinking that Shuttman's mate, real name might be Sadman. I, I don't know, um, indeed. Um, so I mean, look, uh, a great performance. Um, a bit like us, we've kind of warmed into, they've warmed into, um, warmed up. Um, India won the series, uh, they've retained, uh, Shay Casino as well. Um, T 20 start on Sunday. We'll talk about that next week because there's not a lot to be said ready for that for now. Um, there's some other stuff going on with regards to Delhi capitals buying something in Hampshire, which we can touch on very quickly. Um, I know we've got to look on there very soon and then we'll just talk about the World Cup, the Women's World Cup. Yeah. So, uh, the, the owners of, of Delhi capitals, uh, GWR holdings have bought a controlling stake in Hampshire. Uh, Rob Brandgrove, the chair of Hampshire was, uh, GMR, sorry, uh, were, uh, Rob Brandgrove were doing the rounds yesterday, uh, in the media. Um, this is the first time that, uh, an English county has been majority owned by, uh, by private, by foreign private investors. Hampshire did have a deal with their, with the Rajasthan Royals, uh, in their old guys before the, before the, um, fixing scandal, uh, but that was, that was more of a sort of branding tie in. Um, it, it seems quite likely now, uh, that, um, that essentially the parent company of the parent company who own, uh, who have teams in, in the IP over Delhi capitals and various other teams around the world. This is quite likely an attempt to buy into the hundred. We don't know that as, as yet, uh, but we do know that they are, uh, the chair of the group said that they are keen on trying to get a majority stake in the Southern brave. Um, it, it, the, the ECB are trying to get foreign investment in the hundred. Um, a move that hasn't yet happened and might have to be delayed a little bit, but this seems like the long, the long game towards that. It's interesting that it was Hampshire not, uh, the county of one much recently. They do have a test match ground, but it's not a major city. It's a ground that has some issues in terms of access. Uh, it doesn't get a huge amount of test cricket. Uh, you get somebody does have, uh, one that was lost. I should have been one, um, when India played there a few years ago. Well, I mean, that was, that was, that was because it's got a hotel on site. I went to a wedding, man. I went to a wedding in that hotel. Yeah, it's got a hotel on site, um, which, which makes it, um, that's an extra revenue stream, uh, frankly, and the, and it'll be really interesting to see how, uh, how this develops. Everyone seems very positive about it at the, uh, the moment, um, and. We, we are, we are told that, uh, that infrastructure development, which Hampshire have done over the years was a big part of the deal and that. The Southern brave is something that they are keen on, but not, uh. But wasn't a deal breaker, uh, as it were, there's also a 18 hole golf course. Very near, uh, very nearby. It's funny. You mentioned the golf course because actually I was going to just about to say that Peterson was, uh, well, apparently helped to broker the deal because he's obviously Hampshire player and also played Delly. Um, and he's known for his golf. So actually maybe there's three things combined and probably why he wanted to. Yeah, I'm sure there's, I'm sure there's many, uh, an IPO winning strategy that's been hatched on a golf course. Um, I don't know if that we know a lot of the major decisions around the current England team have been made, uh, before during or after golf. It's, um, just as much of a. Of a factor in cricket networking as it is in, in any other, uh, form of networking. Absolutely. Right. Uh, before we wrap it up, let's quickly throw forward to the women's T 20 World Cup, which begins on Thursday. Um, first games will be Bangladesh, Scotland. Um, and then also Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Scotland is in the morning. Um, Pakistan, Sri Lanka in the afternoon, um, and then a few more games. South Africa, West Indies, um, and then Indian, New Zealand on the Friday. So thoughts on the World Cup, and we will delve into this properly next week once it's started. Um, but do you have any thoughts, any predictions? I, the question with every, uh, major women's tournament is who can stop Australia. They have lost a few series recently. Uh, there was a test match to India earlier this year in England played very well against them, uh, in the white ball. Like the women's ashes last, uh, last summer, uh, drew both of those, uh, to one, both of those series, uh, and, and ended up drawing the ashes, uh, which is a multi format in the, in, on the women's side. Uh, India in a group with Australia and New Zealand and Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which is the definitely the harder group. Sri Lanka have been terrific, uh, over the last few years, uh, one, the women's Asia cup, Sri Lanka, Pakistan was a, uh, classic in that semi final of that, uh, that tournament. So that's a, that's got a little bit of spice, uh, resting on it. New Zealand and Pakistan have been very poor over the last few years. Uh, it will be a surprise if it wasn't Australia or in India to, to go through from that group, a huge shock, frankly. Uh, and then in the other group, Bangladesh, England, Scotland, South Africa and the West Indies, uh, England have the highest wind percentage of any of the qualified teams since the last World Cup. Uh, only Australia has scored faster. They've got an attack that's really well suited to these conditions with those three spinners, Charlie Dean, uh, the Sophie Eckerson and Sarah Glenn. Um, and South Africa have been, have really dropped off since, uh, getting to the final of the last T 20 World Cup where they were, uh, where they were terrific. I think one thing in India's favor is they play Australia last in that group. Uh, so that could end up being. Not a quarter final, but almost like a placement game. If things go to, go to plan, obviously, um, India have a few things to sort out, particularly the, the batting line of is extremely flexible. Uh, now to the point where we don't quite know where, like the, the shown was going to be batting and I think that India have fallen into the trap of having her batting too low recently when she is such a dangerous hitter. Uh, we saw her get London spirit over the line in the hundred hitting that six off the last board of the game to win the game. Um, she, she is for want of a word clutch. Uh, we, we, we're bat and ball. I like Jimmy Rodriguez in the middle order. Um, I think that allowing you to get, uh, Rodriguez, Mundana and Shafali, she finally voted my into the same, uh, into the same team. It is excellent. And, um, if these pictures in the UAE where it's obviously been moved from, from Bangladesh because of the uprising, essentially that happened in, in Bangladesh, uh, not that long ago. Um, you would, you would think India would, uh, would profit from, uh, from that, but it's very hard to see the winner coming from beyond, uh, India, Australia and England, um, which given the group set up means that you would expect, uh, England to top their group and play probably India in the semi-final. Uh, and then us, the, the closing pack in terms of England and India, uh, are closer to Australia than they have been, but Australia and the warm up game the other day had Annabel Sutherland, the most expensive player in women's Premier League history, who is a test double centurion. They had her batting at number eight, which, yeah, that's pretty hard to, that's pretty hard to bet against, uh, to be honest. Uh, as you say, it starts on Thursday, India's first game, uh, against a New Zealand team who've been serially pummeled by England home and away. Uh, recently, uh, is on Friday. Yeah, and the other thing, uh, to mention is that in this tournament, um, I believe that the prize money has been increased, which is actually a great thing for the women's game. Um, and I'm not sure, I don't think it's on par with the men's, but it's, it's not far off. Um, I think it's certainly doubled the winners, uh, the overall winner's, um, fee has doubled, um, from last year, which is quite remarkable. So that's a, it's a good thing for the game, particularly the women's game. I also, I would say watch out for, um, Scotland are in their first two, 20 World Cup beat, uh, beat Ireland in the, in the qualifier and Scotland. There were some, some players were worth watching for up the hammock suit. They made herself a kind of folk here in the first season of the hundred, the Bryce sisters, both very, very good players is a shame that Ireland aren't in it because they're probably the most improved team in women's cricket. Uh, right now, this is the last time it'll be a 10 team tournament. It's going to be expanded for, uh, for future editions. Um, so, uh, I would, uh, they'd be, it'll be, it'll be a, it'll be a huge surprise if they got out of the, uh, out of a group, but I think they could, um, they couldn't make a run of it against, uh, uh, against one of South Africa, the West Indies or Bangladesh, uh, and make things, uh, potentially interesting for what I assume is about for second place behind England in that group. Great. Well, thank you for that. Um, well, we'll talk more about that next week on the next episode. Um, by that time, there'll be about nine games, I think will have been played. And the 10th will probably be in progress. Uh, Knuckle, thank you for your, uh, fantabulous insights this week. We missed you last week. I'm glad you were here. Uh, unfortunately, Karen wasn't. Um, and Redonco is still not got his priorities straight. Apparently choosing coursework over being here than all that's about. Um, we're going to leave it there. The aunties will be so proud. The aunties will be so proud. Um, yeah, we're going to leave it there. Don't forget to subscribe down below. If you're watching us on YouTube, um, and hitting follow wherever you get this on Spotify or the Apple podcast app or anything else and make sure you tell everyone about this podcast, come to the corner with two case. Oh, and also check us out on all the socials. Just search complete corner, obviously with two case, bye for now. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]