Former England spinner Graeme Swann took a cheeky dig at McLaren star Oscar Piastri, who attended day two of the Boxing Day Take a look at between Australia and England on Saturday. Piastri was current on the Melbourne Cricket Floor because the match concluded on the second day, with England claiming their first Take a look at win on Australian soil in 15 years.
Piastri had already recognized the Boxing Day Take a look at because the one he would attend, and he saved his promise on Saturday. Throughout his go to, the 24-year-old additionally met captain Pat Cummins and different Aussie stars, together with Mitchell Starc, Cameron Inexperienced, Usman Khawaja, and Alex Carey.
After the match ended as England chased down a modest 175-run goal, Graeme Swann was in a humorous temper as he appeared on the Willow Discuss Cricket Podcast. Whereas on it, the 46-year-old shared his ideas on assembly Oscar Piastri, hilariously noting that he was “smaller” than he had anticipated.
“(He is) smaller than I believed. I do know the F1 drivers are small, however .. large neck, , once you meet F1 drivers, they’ve all obtained large necks,” joked Swann (20:13 onwards).
“However , he isn’t the world champion like Lando,” he additionally added, in step with the Australia-England rivalry.
Aside from this, the cricket motion itself delivered drama as England clinched a uncommon and historic victory. In slightly below two days of play, England chased down a goal of 175 to beat Australia by 4 wickets on the MCG, ending a virtually 15-year drought for Take a look at wins on Australian soil. The brief however intense match was the second event on this Ashes sequence when the match resulted in simply two days.
England openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett laid the muse earlier than Jacob Bethell struck a speedy 40 off 46 balls. Josh Tongue was named the Participant of the Match with seven wickets to his title.
Oscar Piastri displays on “intense” 2025 F1 season
Throughout his go to to the MCG on Saturday, Oscar Piastri additionally mirrored on what he described as an “intense” 2025 F1 marketing campaign. The McLaren driver defined that whereas he had rather a lot to study from throughout the yr, he was nonetheless pleased with the work he put in throughout the season.
Talking to Mark Howard, Piastri shared his ideas on battling for the world championship for the primary time in his F1 profession.
“Clearly it was intense. However wanting again on the entire, extremely pleased with what I used to be capable of do, what we have been capable of obtain as a workforce, to have a automotive as dominant as we did,” stated Piastri [via Fox Sports].
“Clearly on the again finish of the season (there have been) a couple of hurdles, a couple of obstacles. Once I look again on my season, there’s positively issues to work on, issues to study… However total simply very pleased with the work I put in,” he added.
Even amid his seven race wins and domination within the first half of the season, Oscar Piastri completed the 2025 F1 season third within the championship. Lando Norris claimed the title whereas Max Verstappen missed out by 2 factors and completed second ultimately.
Edited by Riddhiman Sarkar