In this episode of the show, we review the first Ashes Test of 2023, which saw Australia defeat England by 2 wickets.

Zak Crawley signalled England's intent from the first ball, and from there the game see-sawed back and forth in front of a raucous crowd until Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon combined with the bat to carry Australia across the line.

We talk declarations, tactics, leadership, throwing your bat into the air, Australia's number XIs, Ricky Ponting blanking Kevin Pietersen, whether England care more about entertaining than winning and how over the course of one match Australia went from the World Test Champions to the plucky underdogs against the big bad Bazballers.

We also discuss the individual performances of Usman Khawaja, Joe Root, Nathan Lyon, Alex Carey and Jonny Bairstow, as well as looking ahead to the second Test at Lord's.

We'll be back again next week, most likely with our Test Cricket Hall of Fame. In the meantime, if you haven't already, please take the time to give us a like, follow, share or subscribe on all our channels (@toporderpod on Twitter and Facebook, & @thetoporderpodcast on Instagram) and a (5-Star!) review at your favourite podcast provider, or tell a friend to download. It really helps others find the show and is the best thing you can do to support us. You can also find all our written content, including our Hall of Fame series, at our website, and our recent episodes as well as some selected interviews are available on YouTube.

You can also dip back into our guest episodes - including conversations with Wasim Khan, Shane Bond, Colin 'Funky' Miller, Sophie Devine, Tim Southee, Finn Allen, George Dobell and many more fascinating people from all across the cricketing world.

And if you'd like to reach out to us with feedback, questions or guest suggestions, get in touch at thetoporderpodcast@gmail.com.

Thanks for listening.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices