Uh, how did you go today? Did you get that footing sorted?

Yeah, it was pretty wet yesterday.

Um, I think S- uh, Smithy mentioned at the start that, um, they don't use hessian, so the wicket was pretty damp, obviously, with the rain, and, um, the freshness of the wicket.

But obviously it's had probably six hours of wind and no cricket on it this morning, so it's dried out.

Um, footalls are fine, and yeah, it's, it's had the covers off most of the day without any cricket.

So I think the square's dried out.

Obviously the ground's still very, very wet, which is why we were pretty delayed from the start.

Um, Boland, Scotty Boland, his performance, uh, how does he keep doing this?

I know there's Bangladesh prior to that, but South Africa clearly... beat us in the world test championship is there any tension do you feel in this rivalry on the back of that but also being the number one and two ranked teams in the icc rankings

yeah we haven't played a lot of cricket against them to be fair so the the test final it's it's uh it's an interesting one obviously uh i guess the newest newest concept in terms of the icc staff and the one-off fixture and it tends to be a neutral venue because england don't make it in a year yeah um So, yeah, obviously, they had us there just comfortably in the final, which is nice to get to a final, but you want to win these finals.

And at the moment, we're on track.

We're not there yet, but we're on track for this cycle as well to be pushing for that final.

But, yeah, we haven't played a lot of test cricket against South Africa, so...

Jeez, I reckon there's been maybe two series plus the final in the last sort of eight years or so.

We haven't been there for eight years.

But the people that are interested in franchise cricket and how the monetary side of it works, can you explain that to us?

Mm-hmm.

You know, I don't know if it was a Shield...

It must've been a Shield game, and I...

This is going way back to, geez, 15 years maybe.

Uh, a bowler tail-ender named Peter George.

Mm.

Um, Davey used to either, if he was on a heater for a long trip and didn't wanna sleep, he would just annoy you.

If you look like you're going to sleep, you weren't going to sleep.

Is it an 18 wickets on a day pitch?

People are gonna look at that and go, "There's something wrong with the wicket." I would say it's, um, it's very similar to a, a Gabba wicket, uh, in terms of the way it played.

It might get quicker throughout the, you know, tomorrow.

Um, it's a bit greasy underfoot to start the game, and then obviously with the weather we've had and the wind, it's, it's gotten a little bit drier.

But it's still playing well.

It's, it's probably quicker than last week in Darwin.

Obviously, we've seen some good carry and some good bounce.

Uh, is there a sense of frustration? We've, we've seen the reports around, you know, the, the fact that the bowlers have, have seemingly carried this group for a long period of time now, that the runs just haven't been there in, in the way that I'm sure the team would've hoped.

Um, how do you sum up the state of play, uh, at the end of the third day?

Yeah, we're certainly pushing it uphill, aren't we? But, um, no, look, I, I think, you know, Bangladesh have obviously showed, um, a lot of patience through their batting innings.

They probably, although we won the toss on a wicket that we weren't sure about, we, probably those, one of those wickets where you wanna lose the toss and, and, um, be told what to do.

But, um, yeah, probably saw the most, uh, most in the wicket for the bowlers through that first session of day one, maybe a bit after lunch.

And then it's sort of gone out, the air's gone out of the wicket and, and, um, we weren't good enough to capitalize in the first innings.

But then, uh, as a, as a batting team, Bangladesh have really showed that patience, made us bowl to them, and then kept us out in the field a long time.

So, um, yeah, there's no mistaking we're a long way behind in this game, but, uh, we still got a lot of fight and scrappiness.

... we've seen a pattern here

Were there times throughout the series where you were caught, uh-oh? Like, is this a moment or were you guys just too good at these patch moments?

Probably not uh-oh, but they certainly fought hard.

I think there was a lot made in that first Test match and how they brought this pace battery and they were all over us in one innings and then that dropped away.

So yeah, I think the Perth Test match was a big one to get the chocolates there and get us into the series, probably where they thought they might have been in the game for most of it.

Brisbane could have gone either way with the pink ball, managed to grind out and get to that night session and do the work there.

Adelaide, Trav and Alex with the bat.

Melbourne was a bit of a lottery with the wicket and then here was probably the most even wicket, I'd say.

And you've given yourself every single opportunity to be able to do something.

Yeah, so do you want to share with our viewers and listeners and Fleb and Pidge that story?

Yeah.

It's one of my more interesting... travel itineraries to anywhere.

Yeah, okay.

So I played a test series in the West Indies.

and had signed for Yorkshire, Diz being the coach, so I was really excited there.

Jake was kind enough to put his Australian passport to the side so we could both play in the same team.

But what about those batters and you've played so much with them?

are they rehearsal burgers in there yeah

Let's do a rehearsal of the whole scene.

We all had to sneak some training in, so there was a gym session after that.

It's a good long day to kick us off.

And then we've got a dinner tonight with the CEO and all the high-performance executives from around the States, so a quick dinner there because it's another early start for us tomorrow.

We're back in there at 7.30. For me, I knock off at 1.30, I think, tomorrow, and then I've got some more training, some running.

I'm probably going to have to get my gym done first thing in the morning, so I get in there before...

Between you, how many test wickets have you taken nearest the pit?

But in all seriousness, has it been an enjoyable time over there coming off the back of the World Test Championship final, which didn't quite go your way?

Yeah, it's been a bit of an interesting one.

I think probably...

Yeah, you mentioned the test final there and then obviously going straight to another tour.

It felt like a really long lead up to that first test in Barbados because we just come off a game of cricket and all of a sudden we've got sort of like five or six days between team test matches, which doesn't normally happen on tour.

So different conditions, yep.

But, you know, I mean, from a bowling point of view, it was sort of...

cricket.