Watch Justin Langer's reaction to Matthew Hayden saying who was the better runner between them

Starting up little debates, dredging up old rivalries within friendships - we at ESPNcricinfo can (sometimes) needle players as well as the Aussies of the old. And in this case, it was a couple of old battle-hardened Aussies that we managed to needle during IPL 2025.

On our "Would You Rather" show, we asked Matthew Hayden if he'd rather: Admit Justin Langer was a better runner than him or that England won the "moral Ashes" in 2023? It was a no-brainer for Hayden, who said: "JL [Langer] was not a good runner as me. I'm just not admitting that."

On watching his old pal's answer, Langer was fired up enough to do a quick poll among his former team-mates (and current IPL coaches). First, he asked his former captain, Ricky Ponting, now Punjab Kings' coach. Not enjoying being put on the spot, Ponting took the easy way out: "Well, you're here, so I'm saying you," he said to a delighted Langer.

But that answer was not definitive enough, so Langer tried his luck with former Australia wicketkeeper Brad Haddin, now Punjab's assistant coach. Haddin chose to live dangerously, saying: "They were all great, the way they played, they didn't hit many boundaries, but Haydos was just better," and ran down the ground, chased by a laughing (but perhaps annoyed?) Langer.

The dust on the debate hasn't settled yet, although Langer's response was conciliatory: "He [Hayden] says he was the better runner between wickets than me, but I would say that we were both very good runners between wickets because there was only once in all our time that we were run out together.

"Haydos, I got lots of man love, lots of brotherhood," Langer signed off with.

Langer and Hayden are second on the list of most runs in a Test partnership, with 5655 runs in 113 Tests at an average of 51.88, behind West Indies' Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge.