US President Donald Trump has said the month-long ceasefire between the US and Iran is on “massive life support”.

He told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that while the ceasefire remained in place, it was “unbelievably weak”.

Following Trump’s comments, Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf wrote on X that Iran’s armed forces were, “ready to respond and to teach a lesson for any aggression.”

Iran laid out its demands to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in a counter-offer sent to the US on Sunday. Trump rejected the proposal, calling it “totally unacceptable” and a “piece of garbage”.

After Trump’s comments, Esmail Baghaei, a foreign ministry spokesperson for Iran, said Tehran’s proposals were “responsible” and “generous”.

After his comments saying Iran’s armed forces ready to respond, Ghalibaf said in a separate post on X that there was “no alternative but to accept the rights of the Iranian people as laid out in the 14-point proposal”.

“The longer they drag their feet, the more American taxpayers will pay for it,” he said.

Tehran’s offer includes an immediate end to the war on all fronts – a reference to the continued Israeli attacks against Iran-supported Hezbollah in Lebanon – a halt to the US naval blockade of Iranian ports and guarantees of no further attacks on Iran, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.

[BBC]

Bangladesh edged ahead of  Pakistan on a day cut in half by rain and bad light, with Monimul Haque and Najmul Hossain Shanto stretching their lead to 179, with seven wickets still in hand.

With the afternoon session wiped out entirely by torrential rains, Bangladesh were solid either side of it, thanks primarily to 105-run stand between the pair, their century partnership this Test, and just the third time a pair has done so for Bangladesh.

Pakistan’s seam bowlers threatened early after removing the openers cheaply once more, but found themselves held up by the two left-handers, with a late strike from Shaheen Shah Afridi in the final session the only triumph they had to show for the rest of the day.

The lights were on almost from the outset on an overcast morning, and the first dismissal looked like the kind a seam bowler would get on a green top under the clouds.

Abbas got one to nip back in off the surface into Mahmudul Hasan Joy’s pads, right under the knee roll. With Pakistan constricting the run-scoring, they struck again through Hasan Ali, who took advantage of the variable bounce to rear one up that caught the shoulder of Shadman Islam’s bat.

The job of rebuilding fell once more to the pair primarily responsible for putting Bangladesh in this position of relative control. Mominul and Shanto merely picked up where they’d left off, settling in and taking the sting out of Pakistan’s attack. Mominul was the more cautious one while Shanto gradually picked up the scoring rate, every run appearing to tilt the match situation ever so slightly Bangladesh’s way.

In the final half hour of the session, the pair looked positively dominant and, in a repeat of the first innings, the runs in that period flowed easily. Salman Ali Agha’s spin posed a threat early on, with Mohammad Rizwan dropping a sharp chance off an outside edge, but even that threat faded soon after. In his final over before lunch, Mominul leapt down the wicket and whacked him over his head.

That the heavens opened might have been an advantage for Pakistan, in that it broke up the pair’s rhythm and made Bangladesh’s calculations about the pacing of their innings more complicated. However, nearly four hours since then previous ball, the resumption of play saw no semblance of a loss of control from either batter. Both ambled to their half-centuries unencumbered, with only Abbas’s unerring accuracy and incessant ability to squeeze movement from a placid surface occasionally discomforting them.

Shan Masood had held off turning to Noman Ali until 35 overs had gone by, presumably largely because he did not wish to bowl a fingerspinner to two left-armers.

But as soon as he was handed the ball, he demonstrated why that theory did not deserve the weight Pakistan appeared to put in it. In his first over, he got one to rear up to Mominul, who could only splice the ball to short leg, where Abdullah Fazal put down a sharp chance. He was not taken out of the attack for the remainder of the day, often exploiting the rough around the left hander’s off stump, and nearly snaring Mushfiqur Rahim when he mistimed a slog agonisingly over long-on’s head.

Bangladesh’s serene progress was only interrupted when Afridi found seam movement to bring one into Mominul, who could not get his outside edge out of the way. With some time remaining in the final session, Pakistan may have hoped to trigger a collapse, but between then and until bad light forced the end of play, Shanto and Mushfiqur ensured there was no such thing.

Brief scores:
Bangladesh 413 and 152 for 3 in 50.3 overs (Najimul Hossain Shanto 58*, Mominul Haque 56;  Hasan Ali 1-23) lead Pakistan 386 in 100.3 overs (Azan Awais 103, Imam-ul-Haq 45, Abdullah Fazal 60, Salman Agha 58, Mohammad Rizwan 59; Mehidy Hasan Miraz 5-102, Taijul Islam 2-46, Taskin Ahmed 2-70) by 179 runs

[Cricinfo]

In a topsy-turvy contest, Delhi Capitals (DC) pulled off the highest successful T20 chase by any team in Dharmasala to hand Punjab Kings (PBKS) their fourth successive loss. Most importantly, the win kept DC’s slim hopes of making the IPL playoffs alive.

The pitch assisted seamers so much that no over of spin was bowled in the whole game – the only time that happened in an IPL match of considerable length was back in 2008.  After being sent in, PBKS rode on Priyansh Arya  and Shreyas Iyer’s half-centuries to post 210 for 5. Iyer later said he felt it was 30 more than the par score. It seemed that way when DC lost three wickets in the powerplay but Axar Patel and David Miller kept them going. Both scored fifties and took DC close.