Oct 9, 2026 · 20 min · 10 segments
Courtney Walsh is joined by Code Sports' Daniel Cherny to analyse the first day of play between Australia and South Africa in their first test series back in South Africa since sandpaper gate. See…
Daniel ChernyGuest
Courtney WalshHost
There wa- o- obviously a lot of discussion around the composition of the Australian XI.
Ever since Cameron Green was ruled out of this match, there was discussion as to, uh, how they would line up.
The, the, the sense, the overall sense in recent days is that it was going to be between Cooper Connolly and Nick Maddinson.
Now, in hindsight, I'm actually not sure it was that, was that black and white.
I think there's a fetch, I think, I suspect, uh, Beau Webster was also in discussions as to whether he may miss out for Cooper Connolly 'cause they wanted a left arm spin option.
Now, Maddinson playing in and of itself was not per se an enormous shock because w- there was proper discussion that he, he would play.
What was a genuine shock to me, maybe not, you know, it's gonna not, not absolutely blow your socks off, but it was a, a tr- fairly big surprise, was that he was gonna open the batting.
And I think in hindsight, that has proven to be, it's one day in, but, and not even a full day, 'cause we've all got to, uh, finish with bad light, which we can get to later.
Um, unfortunately for Nick Maddinson, he has made an, in what should otherwise be an amazing story of a guy who's come through cancer, playing his first test match in a decade, and, uh, almost a decade, and he made the longest duck in, for an Australian opener in test history, a record.
He should've been out in the 15th ball of those, uh, when he, uh, should've been LBW, uh, to be out nulled out.
Um, it was overturned on re- Uh, it, sorry, it, it should've been overturned on review, but the South Africans didn't review.
I think, I think captain might, might, the captain might've thought there was inside edge, but perhaps they thought it was, um, pitching outside.
Uh, and eventually he was gone for a duck from 33 balls, um, chopping onto Marco Jansen.
The fact that he was called up at all, even into the squad, because this is a guy who had not played first-class cricket since early 2025.
There wa- o- obviously a lot of discussion around the composition of the Australian XI.
Ever since Cameron Green was ruled out of this match, there was discussion as to, uh, how they would line up.
The, the, the sense, the overall sense in recent days is that it was going to be between Cooper Connolly and Nick Maddinson.
Now, in hindsight, I'm actually not sure it was that, was that black and white.
I think there's a fetch, I think, I suspect, uh, Beau Webster was also in discussions as to whether he may miss out for Cooper Connolly 'cause they wanted a left arm spin option.
Now, Maddinson playing in and of itself was not per se an enormous shock because w- there was proper discussion that he, he would play.
What was a genuine shock to me, maybe not, you know, it's gonna not, not absolutely blow your socks off, but it was a, a tr- fairly big surprise, was that he was gonna open the batting.
And I think in hindsight, that has proven to be, it's one day in, but, and not even a full day, 'cause we've all got to, uh, finish with bad light, which we can get to later.
Um, unfortunately for Nick Maddinson, he has made an, in what should otherwise be an amazing story of a guy who's come through cancer, playing his first test match in a decade, and, uh, almost a decade, and he made the longest duck in, for an Australian opener in test history, a record.
He should've been out in the 15th ball of those, uh, when he, uh, should've been LBW, uh, to be out nulled out.
Um, it was overturned on re- Uh, it, sorry, it, it should've been overturned on review, but the South Africans didn't review.
I think, I think captain might, might, the captain might've thought there was inside edge, but perhaps they thought it was, um, pitching outside.
Uh, and eventually he was gone for a duck from 33 balls, um, chopping onto Marco Jansen.
The fact that he was called up at all, even into the squad, because this is a guy who had not played first-class cricket since early 2025.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.