Australia v India: fifth men’s T20 international washed out to give tourists series victory
The inevitable has happened and the plug is finally pulled folks.India take the series 2-1 with two washouts along the way.My tv turned to other pursuits a long time ago, it never looked likely they would resume in Brisbane with the radar showing storms swirling around the whole area and very heavy rain.Nothing like a two and a half hour wait to have that confirmed though.India Captain Suryakumar Yadav lifts the trophy and says a few words: ‘The weather isn’t in our control.
Credit to all the boys to bounce back after losing the first game.Bumrah, Arshdeep and the spinners are all doing really well.They bring a lot to the table.I saw recently what happened with the women’s team, who won the World Cup.There’s a lot of excitement, support and responsibility at home.
Exciting tournament in prospect but still a couple of series to go (before then).Mitchell Marsh laments the weather: “I can’t remember the last time we played without rain.It was a good series, congrats to India on the win.A lot of learnings and positives to take.Especially the flexibility in the squad… we’ll be back to full strength for the World Cup.
”Abhishek Sharma is player of the series: I’ve been waiting for this tour.I was excited from the time the series was confirmed.Pitches are batting-friendly.I feel we could’ve gotten bigger scores but we’ve done well in the series.My captain and coach have given me the responsibility to play freely and start big.
They’ve given me clarity and space to go express myself.The T20 World Cup is one of the biggest tournaments and it’ll be a dream-come-true moment if and when I get to play there.I’ll make sure I’ll be ready for it.”That’s that then.Thanks for sticking with me, we’ll be back to bring you the OBO of the entire Ashes series in less than a fortnight.
I’m sure it will be pretty quiet until then…Have a nice day/evening/morning/whatever – goodbye!Weather Update: It is raining again I’m afraid…Thanks to Rebecca M who sends this missive in from the ground:“Sitting here in Gabba members, currently on our 6th round of the Mexican wave.Still lightning in the area, but the rain has eased- at least for now!”Maybe there is still hope? We’ve lost about 80 minutes and counting so it will be a reduced game if they do manage to get back on the park.I’m afraid it is still raining and still flashing with lightning at the Gabba.Maybe time for a quiz?Weather update: It is pelting it down at the Gabba.The inclement weather has seemingly sent Kabira Namit into a coin toss based paranoia:“Has anyone considered sending Indian captains to remedial coin-tossing classes? Asking for a nation that’s apparently forgotten what winning a toss looks like in 2025.
Between Harman’s World Cup tosses (lost all but one, if memory serves), the England Test series (clean sweep for Stokes and Pope at the toss), and now this T20 series, I’m beginning to think we’ve accidentally angered the toss gods.Or perhaps we’re conducting a lengthy scientific experiment on whether it’s possible to win matches despite never getting first choice? Would genuinely love to know the actual percentage of tosses India has lost this year (partly for statistical purposes) but mostly to confirm whether my growing paranoia is justified.”There are forks of lightning flashing the skies around the Gabba and the umpires have seen enough, just as the players are sent from the middle the rain starts too.The scoreboard is now lit up with a severe weather warning and the fans in the lower stands are being cleared as a precaution.I fear this could be a long old delay folks.
4th over: India 47-0 (Abishek Sharma 20, Gill 27) Another chance goes begging! Dwarshuis is the guilty fielder this time, no doubt a bit rattled after being out to the sword by Gill in the previous over, he runs in from fine leg but never looked confident and the ball fell through his fingers.Sharma survives once more and celebrates by slamming a SIX over midwicket.3rd over: India 35-0 (Abishek Sharma 9, Gill 26) Shubman Gill is ticking! He takes Dwarshuis for four boundaries off the over, he uses his feet to dance down and clip through midwicket, drive through cover, cut through point and pull through square.Fair to say he’s seeing it big.2nd over: India 19-0 (Abishek Sharma 6, Gill 10) Xavier Bartlett shares the new ball, Gill greets him with a flat batted crack through extra cover.
Shades of Virat in that one.1st over: India 11-0 (Abishek Sharma 6, Gill 5) Ben Dwarshuis starts with the new white ball under beaming Brisbane floodlights.There’s big swing out there but Sharma isn’t too fussed, he makes room and slaps a boundary over mid off! DROP! Glenn Maxwell spills a tricky chance pedalling backwards at at mid off! Tricky chance but Maxwell will be gutted to spill that one.Salt meet wound.Shubman clips the next ball through midwicket for four.
Radar not looking too clever but Mitch Marsh and his men take the field.You don’t have to be a weather expert to suggest that it’s looking very ominous here around the Gabba tonight #AusvInd pic.twitter.com/PL9KvLz4PcWe’ll be underway shortly weather permitting… in the meantime and aptly enough given his surname - there’s just enough time to dig into this piece with Jake Weatherald.Teams: Australia are unchanged, for India - Rinku Singh comes in for Varma.
India: 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (c), 4 Rinku Singh, 5 Axar Patel, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Jasprit BumrahAustralia: 1 Matt Short, 2 Mitchell Marsh (c), 3 Josh Inglis (wk), 4 Tim David, 5 Josh Philippe, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Glenn Maxwell, 8 Ben Dwarshuis, 9 Xavier Bartlett, 10 Nathan Ellis, 11 Adam Zampa“Looks a good surface, great to come in on this great ground.” says Aussie Skipper Mitchell Marsh.“It’s not exactly the same as the final of a tournament but there’s lots to play for, we can level the series and its a last chance for us tonight.”Hello and welcome to the fifth and final T20I between Australia and India from Brisbane’s Gabba.The home side are looking to draw the series after being befuddled and bamboozled by India’s spin attack in the previous couple of matches at Hobart and Carrara.
The Gabba pitch might not be quite as conducive to the twirlers but the more pressing issues is the fact there are storms forecast in the area, fingers crossed we can get a full game in.It is fine at the moment and the two captains are headed out for the toss…Barring any wet stuff we should be underway in about fifteen minutes – 6.15pm local/7.15pm AEDT/1.45pm IDT and 8.
15am here in dear old England.
Tesla shareholders approve $1tn pay package for Elon Musk
Tesla shareholders approved a $1tn compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk on Thursday, awarding the world’s richest person what would be the largest corporate payout in history if he meets the goals necessary to receive it.The pay package, which several high-profile investors opposed, demonstrates that shareholders still believe Musk can lead the automaker in an era dominated by robotics and artificial intelligence.The result of the vote was announced at the annual shareholder event in Austin, Texas, with more than 75% of investors voting in favor of the plan. Chants of “Elon” erupted in the room at the news of its approval.“Thanks, guys,” Musk said, after briefly dancing on stage alongside the company’s Optimus robots
Amazon sues AI startup over browser’s automated shopping and buying feature
Amazon sued a prominent artificial intelligence startup on Tuesday over a shopping feature in the company’s browser, which can automate placing orders for users. Amazon accused Perplexity AI of covertly accessing customer accounts and disguising AI activity as human browsing.“Perplexity’s misconduct must end,” Amazon’s lawyers wrote. “Perplexity is not allowed to go where it has been expressly told it cannot; that Perplexity’s trespass involves code rather than a lockpick makes it no less unlawful.”Perplexity, which has grown rapidly amid the boom in AI assistants, has previously rejected the US shopping company’s claims, accusing Amazon of using its market dominance to stifle competition
Google plans to put datacentres in space to meet demand for AI
Google is hatching plans to put artificial intelligence datacentres into space, with its first trial equipment sent into orbit in early 2027.Its scientists and engineers believe tightly packed constellations of about 80 solar-powered satellites could be arranged in orbit about 400 miles above the Earth’s surface equipped with the powerful processors required to meet rising demand for AI.Prices of space launches are falling so quickly that by the middle of the 2030s the running costs of a space-based datacentre could be comparable to one on Earth, according to Google research released on Tuesday.Using satellites could also minimise the impact on the land and water resources needed to cool existing datacentres.Once in orbit, the datacentres would be powered by solar panels that can be up to eight times more productive than those on Earth
LOL: is this the ultimate texting faux pas (and what should you use instead)?
From abbreviations to happy poos, gen Z has strong opinions on appropriate texting behaviour. But can anyone keep up with the ever-changing rules?Name: “LOL”.Age: The Oxford English Dictionary first included LOL in 1997.Not to be confused with: Loll, which is what dogs sometimes do.So as in “laugh out loud”? Or laughing out loud, though David Cameron thought it stood for “lots of love” and used to sign off to Rebekah Brooks, the former Sun and News of the World editor, with a LOL
Apple Watch SE 3 review: the bargain smartwatch for iPhone
Apple’s entry level Watch SE has been updated with almost everything from its excellent mid-range Series 11 but costs about 40% less, making it the bargain of iPhone smartwatches.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The new Watch SE 3 costs from £219 (€269/$249/A$399), making it one of the cheapest brand-new fully fledged smartwatches available for the iPhone and undercutting the £369 Series 11 and the top-of-the-line £749 Apple Watch Ultra 3
Experts find flaws in hundreds of tests that check AI safety and effectiveness
Experts have found weaknesses, some serious, in hundreds of tests used to check the safety and effectiveness of new artificial intelligence models being released into the world.Computer scientists from the British government’s AI Security Institute, and experts at universities including Stanford, Berkeley and Oxford, examined more than 440 benchmarks that provide an important safety net.They found flaws that “undermine the validity of the resulting claims”, that “almost all … have weaknesses in at least one area”, and resulting scores might be “irrelevant or even misleading”.Many of the benchmarks are used to evaluate the latest AI models released by the big technology companies, said the study’s lead author, Andrew Bean, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute.In the absence of nationwide AI regulation in the UK and US, benchmarks are used to check if new AIs are safe, align to human interests and achieve their claimed capabilities in reasoning, maths and coding
Seth Meyers on Mamdani’s win: ‘The kind of energy Democrats have been desperately seeking for years’
Garden shed of vaccine pioneer Edward Jenner added to heritage at risk register
Miss Piggy movie on way from Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone and Cole Escola
Colbert on Pelosi calling Trump a vile creature: ‘You know who agrees? Most Americans’
De Niro to JLaw: should celebrities be expected to speak out against Trump?
Jon Stewart on Trump’s Gatsby party: ‘The theme was apparently gross income inequality’