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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine

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Speaker 1: from news Talk ZEDB.

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Speaker 2: Thursday, Australia wrapped up a four to one Ashes series

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Speaker 2: victory over England, winning the final Test in Sydney by

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Speaker 2: five wikets and true the winning runs. It's in the

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Speaker 2: Battle of Alex Kerry. Fine series by the Australian widgit

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Speaker 2: keeper Fine all round series by the entire Australian squad.

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Speaker 2: So let's wrap the series with our Australian correspondent to

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Speaker 2: Adam Peacock, who joins us in his regular slot. You've

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Speaker 2: been covering the Ashes brilliantly both here with us but

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Speaker 2: also on your Willow Talk podcast. Adam, I want to

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Speaker 2: ask you about a few different features of the Ashes.

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Speaker 2: Let's start with Travis Head. Incredible series from him, six

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Speaker 2: hundred and twenty nine runs and ten innings, three centuries.

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Speaker 2: Nine of those ten innings opening the batting, which is

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Speaker 2: not his regular slot. You normally find them batting at

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Speaker 2: number five in Test matches. Given his success, will travish'd

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Speaker 2: continue to open the batting for Australia in teest matches?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? Great, plenty, I reckon he will actually looking at

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Speaker 3: the schedule coming up. I think of the subcontinent he

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Speaker 3: was always going to open. When they last went to India,

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Speaker 3: he started opening the batting. I think he'll do the

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Speaker 3: same in twelve months time when we're over there at

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Speaker 3: the five Tests, and before then we're playing Bangladesh, We're

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Speaker 3: playing new guys over here. So I can't see any

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Speaker 3: reason why he wouldn't. The way he plays the white

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Speaker 3: ball game translates now to the red ball game. Like

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Speaker 3: David Warner was an attacking player, I think Travis Head

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Speaker 3: he is an even more attacking player, unconventional, more unconventional

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Speaker 3: than David Warner, but you get the same results. I

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Speaker 3: think with our batting stocks in three, four five, we've

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Speaker 3: got options there that we can use. If Travis does

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Speaker 3: go up the audio, I reckon he will.

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Speaker 2: Was it any surprise that he did so well, because

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Speaker 2: he's hardly ever opened in test matches and this was

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Speaker 2: really it wasn't by design, more by necessity, wasn't it.

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Speaker 2: But were you surprised at all at the way he

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Speaker 2: equipped himself to opening the betting?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: I was like, it certainly wasn't on anyone's prediction card

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Speaker 3: that he was going to open the batting at any

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Speaker 3: stage during the Ashes, regardless of what happened with Usmam Kwaishor,

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Speaker 3: I think we would have found another opener, but just

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Speaker 3: him flippantly saying yaol opened when Usam Kaisher wasn't ready

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Speaker 3: to open the batting in the second innings in Perth,

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Speaker 3: it was certainly a better option than the first innings

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Speaker 3: when mar mclabashet got chunted up and then Steve Smith

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Speaker 3: went up and kind of disjointed the whole order. It

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Speaker 3: was just one placement now that we had to we

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Speaker 3: had to figure out. So yeah, I think definitely it's

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Speaker 3: his place, and yeah it's exciting to watch when he's

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Speaker 3: upt the top of the order. And yeah, it was

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Speaker 3: a weird old theory point because we didn't have these

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Speaker 3: absolute breakout stars. Apart from Travor's head Alex Cary Mitt Stark,

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Speaker 3: every other player that played set the world on fire.

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Speaker 3: But the difference was that the Australians who played, they

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Speaker 3: all made some kind of meaningful difference with one moment

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Speaker 3: or more, whereas the English didn't have that. They didn't

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Speaker 3: have these players popping up with big moments here and there.

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Speaker 3: You had Joe Route, you had Jacob Bethel scot in

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Speaker 3: centries that they didn't have enough friends and that was

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Speaker 3: the key in.

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Speaker 2: Terms of the Australian batting order. We know Osmond Kawhaja

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Speaker 2: now steps away from Test matches, so we know Travis

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Speaker 2: Head's going to be there in some way, shape or form.

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Speaker 2: But what about the others, Jack Weather or only a

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Speaker 2: couple of hundred runs in the series, Manus Labashane averaging

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Speaker 2: under thirty, Cam Green averaging under twenty five. I mean,

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Speaker 2: we know Steve Smith's magnificent player. Are there questions about

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Speaker 2: the Test batting order over the next twelve to eighteen

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Speaker 2: months or so.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's still not settled. You're right about Jake

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Speaker 3: whether or he doesn't have the you know, the backing

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Speaker 3: of a h huge kind of body of work, especially

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Speaker 3: at the international level. Cameron Green they just like because

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Speaker 3: he can bowl over one forty and he can bat

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Speaker 3: well and when he puts his head to it and

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Speaker 3: he peeks it out, he's going to be immensely, immensely

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Speaker 3: difficult to stop. But at the moment everyone's frustrated that

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Speaker 3: he keeps on throwing his wicket away and not providing

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Speaker 3: much with the ball. I think that's a little harsh

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Speaker 3: to the ladder one. I think he provides a lot

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Speaker 3: with the ball, he plays a role, but with the bat, yeah, definitely,

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Speaker 3: he's been disappointing, so he'll be given chances. And Marnus

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Speaker 3: I think as well. He showed signs during this ashes

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Speaker 3: that he's working out, and then he showed signs of

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Speaker 3: his old self when he became really confused. So yeah,

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Speaker 3: you're right, there's questions, but I think there's there's more.

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Speaker 3: There's a more settled feel to the team out of

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Speaker 3: the Test series and then before going in, and I

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Speaker 3: think that's down to a number of factors. Namely some

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Speaker 3: of them made him up, and secondly England just didn't

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Speaker 3: throw enough at us on a consistent base.

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Speaker 2: What about bo Webster comes in and gets seventy or

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Speaker 2: not out, picks up three for and the second innings

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Speaker 2: of the fiftiest where was he in the first four?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well there was not a spot for him. And

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Speaker 3: it's a hard one because on paper it looks like

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Speaker 3: they've made a horrible mistake, but I don't think they did.

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Speaker 3: They were three one up in the series when he

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Speaker 3: came into the team, so they were still winning games.

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Speaker 3: I get the feeling that bow is judged on the

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Speaker 3: fact that, yes, he's a very good all rounder, but

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Speaker 3: Cameron Green has more upside. So now that you look

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Speaker 3: at his figures now and people say, well you can't

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Speaker 3: lie against that, well you can't, but they have to

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Speaker 3: make a judgment call if they're only going to one

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Speaker 3: all round her and at the moment, Cameron Green, I think,

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Speaker 3: because of his air speed with the ball, gets the

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Speaker 3: not so yeah, it'll be a big discussion point out

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Speaker 3: of the next day a month they when Australia start

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Speaker 3: playing chest cricket aloft from about August.

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Speaker 2: Which English players adam leave with an enhanced reputation or

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Speaker 2: even with their reputation intact.

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Speaker 3: Enhance. Josh Tungue, Jacob Bethel and therein lies the problem

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Speaker 3: because they didn't they weren't. They weren't then good enough

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Speaker 3: to play in the first two Tests, which seems ridiculous.

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Speaker 3: Josh Tungu would have done really well in Perth, he

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Speaker 3: would have done exceptionally well in Brisbane, I reckon, but

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Speaker 3: he was judged to not not be ahead of the

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Speaker 3: other guys and their plans just didn't come off. Their

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Speaker 3: mentality wasn't quite there. But apart from that, I don't

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Speaker 3: think anyone anyone walks away with oh Joe Root can

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Speaker 3: walk away now saying oh, I'll kicked that. But really

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Speaker 3: Australia had had a bit of a strainer wanting for

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Speaker 3: the rest of the time when he wasn't scoring centuries,

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Speaker 3: especially in Adelaide when I really needed him and the

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Speaker 3: game could have been different with a big score from

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Speaker 3: Joe Rout and Pat Cummers just has his number. So yeah,

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Speaker 3: it goes two Bethel and time.

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Speaker 2: I reckon all right, and I want to talk about

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Speaker 2: Mitchell Stark. I mean, we talk about enhanced reputations cheap

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Speaker 2: as it's a high bar anyway, but thirty one wickets

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Speaker 2: in this series, all this great chat you had with

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Speaker 2: he and Alyssa Heally on Willow Talk and he talked

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Speaker 2: about keeping receipts. Can you can you give us a

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Speaker 2: quick summary of that chat?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, Mitch, Mitch is a guy that likes being motivated,

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Speaker 3: and he finds ways of getting motive like all supports

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Speaker 3: people do, and he doesn't mind talking about it. But yeah,

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Speaker 3: if someone's going to tell him he can't do something,

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Speaker 3: he's going to try and find a way to do it,

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Speaker 3: especially at this stage in his career. He knows his

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Speaker 3: game so well, he knows what he has to prepare

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Speaker 3: and that with Keith and Mit, he's got a great preparation.

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Speaker 3: He kind of didn't play he's retired from T twenty

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Speaker 3: so he didn't have to play that series against India,

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Speaker 3: played a couple of one dayers, but built up slowly,

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Speaker 3: played a couple of shield games. I think he did

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Speaker 3: and just got himself physically in absolute mint condition and

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Speaker 3: I think he went off to drink as well, which

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Speaker 3: maybe he's a good idea for all of us after

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Speaker 3: the Christmas period. So yeah, he just he just precked

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Speaker 3: himself so well and he got everything out of himself.

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Speaker 3: And yeah, absolutely pup for him. He's a great guy.

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Speaker 3: And yeah, with the fact that he had no pack comings,

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Speaker 3: no Josh Hazelwood, the other the other two and the

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Speaker 3: three man pace gang that we've got, and he had

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Speaker 3: to really carry the way. If he doesn't bowl well,

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Speaker 3: things are a lot harder for Australia. And time and

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Speaker 3: time again, I'll go to go back and check it,

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Speaker 3: but time and time again he took a wicket with

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Speaker 3: his first bell in an innings. I don't know how

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Speaker 3: many times he did it, but just felt like every

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Speaker 3: single time even about it. They were one for after

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Speaker 3: MITx finished his first bell. So yeah, incredible, incredible summer.

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Speaker 2: And his wife Alissa Healy. I mean, she's a terrific

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Speaker 2: cricketer as well, but her her incisive analysis both on

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Speaker 2: your podcast but also on the television broadcast. She's almost

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Speaker 2: like a player of the series off the field, doesn't.

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Speaker 3: She Yeah, yeah, that's pod On on day five, I said,

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Speaker 3: the two people are the series standing with me right

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Speaker 3: here that she like, it's no surprise to me what

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Speaker 3: she's doing on TV because we talk a lot on

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Speaker 3: the podcast obviously, but she's just she's just such a

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Speaker 3: natural human being, Like there's no bars about her. She's

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Speaker 3: one of the most competitive people I've ever met in

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Speaker 3: my life when you've thrown a sporting context a bit

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Speaker 3: with a golf club or a cricket bat or whatever.

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Speaker 3: But away from that, she's just you know, fun. I'll

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Speaker 3: sum it up by the fact that when this is

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Speaker 3: on the podcast, they're not giving away any secrets. Her

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Speaker 3: family know, well, they got her a NERF gun for Christmas,

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Speaker 3: so that kind of points to the type of mentality

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Speaker 3: she has in downtimes, she's just she just likes being

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Speaker 3: a kid. So no, she's good fun and a great

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Speaker 3: commentator and obviously got the cricket IQ in the in

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Speaker 3: the highest percentile. So yeah, look forward to hearing plenty

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Speaker 3: more of her over the next couple of decades.

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Speaker 2: I'd say absolutely, have loved your coverage of the Ashes

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Speaker 2: over the last of the last sort of five or

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Speaker 2: six weeks or so, Adam, and great to get your

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Speaker 2: Andelle Us here on the radio too. So I guess

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Speaker 2: it's the Aussie Open nixt for you. Is that your

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Speaker 2: next point of call?

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Speaker 3: Yes, heading down there on when it's Thursday, So yeah,

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Speaker 3: looking forward to that. Keeping rong on the tennis at

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Speaker 3: the moment, showing that Nick Krios but's probably the right

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Speaker 3: thing to do. He's not ready to play five five

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Speaker 3: set tennis, so just play the doubles. He'll become a

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Speaker 3: focal point every second day when he's playing with his

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Speaker 3: mate Donati, And yeah, the rest of it, it's senner

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Speaker 3: Olcaraz and men and then yeah, take your pick in

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Speaker 3: the women's again.

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Speaker 2: Look forward to catching up with you from Melbourne next week.

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Speaker 2: Always appreciate you your time on z B.

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Speaker 3: Adam, Here's funny have everyone.

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Speaker 2: You have a good one too, mate, Thanks indeed, Adam

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Speaker 2: Peacock with his wrap of the ashes Australia for England one.

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Speaker 1: For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talk zed B weekends from midday or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio