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The Ashes rivalry between the Australian and English cricket teams escalated to new levels, with the prime ministers of both countries jumping into the fray, again.
After Jonny Bairstow's controversial dismissal in the Lord's Test, Britain's Rishi Sunak and Australia's Anthony Albanese took to social media to defend their respective teams.
On Tuesday, on the fringe of the NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunak and Albanese abstained from national security gup shup to trade joyful punches on whose team was better.
Ben Stokes's side, which won the Headingley Test and scampered back into the Ashes 2023 series after losing the first two Tests, at Edgbaston and Lord's? Or Pat Cummins' Aussies who never give up until the last ball has been bowled?
'I caught up with Prime Minister @RishiSunak to discuss the progress of AUKUS, technology transfer, economic challenges, and the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement,' Albanese tweeted. 'And of course, we discussed the #Ashes.'
In the video, Albanese brandishes a paper with '2-1' written on it, highlighting Australia's lead after the first three Ashes 2023 Tests.
Sunak then pulls out a picture of Chris Woakes and Mark Wood hugging after they took England to a 3 wicket victory at Headingley, prompting the Australian PM to display a picture of the infamous Bairstow dismissal.
Not to be outdone, Sunak, who was seen at Lord's on day four of the second Test, jabbed back. 'I'm sorry, I didn't bring my sandpaper with me', causing both leaders to burst into laughter.
In case, you have just returned from a galactic mission, 'sandpaper' here refers to Sandpaper gate, where the Australians were charged with ball tampering during a Test against South Africa.