Kagiso Rabada and Mohommed Siraj could have been wearing their Test whites. By the end of the powerplay, they had bowled three overs each, and Sunrisers Hyderabad were reduced to 34 for 4. Somehow, they had outdone the Gujarat Titans batting line-up from the first innings – they had been reduced to 34 for 2 themselves. Wickets in hand allowed B Sai Sudarsan (61 off 44) and Washington Sundar (50 off 33) to mount a comeback for GT. On the other hand, SRH let a tricky chase of 168 slip from their grasp, folding for 86 in 14.5 overs.

At the toss, GT captain Shubman Gill said that the pitch in Ahmedabad looked like “a better wicket than we have had in the past couple of matches.” He was dismissed in the third over, off a rare mistimed swipe across the line. He had misjudged a pitch that turned out to be one of this IPL’s most treacherous ones: deliveries stuck in the surface, the new ball jagged both ways, and scoring options were hard to find square of the wicket.

An endless battery of tall GT fast bowlers – rounded out by Jason Holder and Impact Player Prasidh Krishna in the middle overs – kept striking in the chase. At the end of it, GT rose to the top of the table with 16 points.

Pat Cummins unlocked the secret to bowling on this surface early: he pushed it in on a hard length, and kept swinging the new ball away from both Sudharsan and Gill. But the first two wickets for SRH came from elsewhere. Praful Hinge found himself back in the SRH side, in place of Harsh Dubey to give them an extra pace option.

Hinge mimicked the Cummins line-and-length early on, and tempted Gill into a misjudged on-drive. In the final over of the powerplay, Jos Buttler realised he could not go big in the ‘V’, so he tried to scoop Hinge behind the wicket instead. All he managed was an edge to the keeper.

Hinge’s twin strikes consigned GT to 34 for 2, their lowest powerplay score this season.

If ever there was a pitch suited to Sudharsan’s brand of T20 batting, it was this. He kept pouncing on the deliveries that erroneously landed in the slot, and pushed the others around to turn over the strike. Nishant Sindhu, who made 22 off 14, kept him company at the other end through the middle overs. Sindhu stayed deep in his crease and played drives and cuts, both batters biding their time.

Sensing a breakthrough, Cummins brought himself back into the attack in the 10th over to bowl his third. He rifled in a delivery outside off, full but rearing off the pitch at Sindhu. He could only mistime a lofted drive to long-off.

Cummins ended with figures of 1 for 20 in the 16th. Just an over later, Sai Sudharsan – who had brought up his sixth half-century of the season – opted for another scoop off Sakib Hussain. The full delivery took off the bottom of his bat, and Hinge gobbled it up at short third.

The UK has said it will contribute drones, fighter jets and a warship to a joint mission aimed at safeguarding shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Defence minister John Healey announced the package at a virtual summit of defence ministers on Tuesday. It includes autonomous systems to detect and clear naval mines, drone boats and Typhoon jets for air patrols.

More than 40 other nations are involved in the mission, which Healey said would begin when conditions allow.

For months Iran has been controlling the Strait of Hormuz – one of the world’s busiest oil shipping channels – in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks.

The US, for its part, has been enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports to exert pressure on Tehran to agree to its terms – a move that has infuriated Iran.

Some 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas uses the crucial waterway, whose blockage has sent prices soaring globally.

A ceasefire has been in place between the US and Iran since April, but US President Donald Trump has said it is on “massive life support”.

Both sides have accused the other of launching attacks in the strait.

There is already more than 1,000 British personnel deployed in the region as part of existing defensive operations, including counter-drone teams and fast jet squadrons, the ministry said.

The Ministry of Defence said the multinational mission – which was announced last month by the UK and France – is strictly defensive and aimed at restoring confidence for commercial shipping along the Strait of Hormuz.

It said the contribution is backed by £115m new funding for mine-hunting drones and counter-drone systems.

“With our allies, this multinational mission will be defensive, independent, and credible,” Healey said in a statement.

Under the plan, HMS Dragon – the air defence destroyer that is already on its way to the Middle East – will also “be ready for any mission” to secure the strait, the MoD said.

It added that another British ship, the RFA Lyme Bay, continues to be upgraded by with new equipment, if required for operations in the strait.

The announcement comes as Healey offered his support to Sir Keir Starmer, as dozens of Labour MPs called on the prime minister to resign.

[BBC]

Jess Phillips, a high-profile Labour minister, has quit in protest as Prime Minister Keir Starmer refuses to heed growing calls to resign, according to Sky News. Hours earlier, Miatta Fahnbulleh, a junior minister, was the first politician to leave government over the issue.

Starmer has promised to “get on with governing”, defying calls from about 80 MPs who are urging Starmer to leave imminently or set out a timetable to do so after his Labour Party suffered heavy losses in local elections.

As Labour was hammered, the hard-right Reform UK party surged in the local elections.

The UK’s fourth prime minister in five years, Starmer also faces pressure over the Labour Party’s vetting process to approve Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the United States, given Mandelson’s relationship with the billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

[Aljazeera]