Novak Djokovic couldn’t hide his astonishment after watching Melbourne Stars’ captain Marcus Stoinis’s early dismissal during their derby clash against the Renegades in the Big Bash League. The Serb, who is in Melbourne for the 2025 Australian Open, decided to give cricket a shot during his free time and his reaction video has gone viral.
The Stars and the Renageds clashed at the Marvel stadium looking to attain bragging rights. The former was put to bat and had a disastrous start losing four wickets for just 44 runs. However, things went from bad to worse when they lost their captain Marcus Stoinis at 18. Stoinis hit the ball up in the air which led to Kane Richardson taking a difficult catch near the boundary line.
The high-octane action left Novak Djokovic in disbelief and the moment was posted on BBL’s social media page. The moment went viral garnering 337.4K views, 5.5 likes, and 337 re-tweets in nearly four hours.
Another popular cricket page on X shared the clip and gained a whopping 275,9K views, 5.2K likes, and 286 retweets.
The 37-year-old left the stadium at 105-7, which meant that he missed out on Glenn Maxwell’s heroic 90 off 52 innings which helped the Stars to put on a respectable 165, which they ended up defending by bowling the Renegades out for 123 in 19.5 overs.
“He is going to be really pumped to make a statement” – Novak Djokovic opens up about playing rising star Nishesh Basavareddy at the Australian Open
During his pre-tournament press conference, Novak Djokovic opened up about playing rising star Nishesh Basavareddy in the opening round of the 2025 Australian Open to Sportskeeda and admitted that he didn’t know much about his playstyle.
“Well, to be honest, I don’t know much about him,” he said. “I watched him play yesterday actually for the first time. I think he’s playing semifinals of New Zealand tournament now. I saw that he’s very quick. He’s very talented player. He’s got great hands. He’s very dynamic. He can serve well, hit spots. Just very complete game overall.”
However, the Serb knew that he couldn’t take the young American lightly, who would come out guns blazing since he had nothing to lose.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s going to be his, I guess, first time in main draw of the Grand Slam, wild card, playing on the center court,” he added. “Not much to lose. I’m sure that he is going to be really pumped to make a statement. I have to obviously approach that match very seriously, like any other, and do my best to get a win. Also in the process, enjoy the nice moment of sharing the court with him.”
Novak Djokovic will be looking to win an unprecedented 25th Grand Slam at the 2025 Australian Open, for which he has teamed up with his former rival Andy Murray to coach him.
