Buttler and Siraj lead Gujarat to big victory over Bengaluru in IPL

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Fast bowler Mohammed Siraj grabbed 3-19 against his former team and Jos Buttler made amends for poor glovework with a 31-ball half-century as Gujarat Titans notched an eight-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.

Siraj, who was not retained by Benglauru, bowled to tight lengths in Bengaluru's first home game of the season before Liam Livingstone’s 40-ball knock of 54 lifted the total to 169-8.

Buttler dropped one of the three catches and missed out stumping of Livingstone but smashed an unbeaten 73 off 39 balls as Gujarat cruised to 170-2 in 17.5 overs, denying Bengaluru of a third straight victory.

Opening batter Sai Sudharsan (49) missed out on his third straight half-century, but his 75-run partnership with Buttler led Gujarat to its second win of the season.

Buttler had a few tough months coming into the IPL as he stepped down as England captain after an early exit from the Champions Trophy. But he shrugged of the disappointment for his new IPL franchise, even if being a bit scratchy behind the wickets.

Captain Shubman Gill scored run-a-ball 14 before he sliced a catch to Livingstone at third man just one ball after hitting Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a six inside the power play.

But with dew settling in, Buttler and Sudharsan batted with lot of aggression before a dried ball brought success for Bengaluru. Sudharsan tried to play a lap-shot against Josh Hazlewood (1-43) for the second time but offered a simple catch to wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma.

Buttler raised his second half-century of the season with a six over long-on against Livingstone as Bengaluru had little answer to Englishman’s aggression. Impact player Sherfane Rutherford also hit three sixes in his quickfire unbeaten 30 off 18 balls as he finished off the game with a pulled six off Hazlewood.

“Really enjoyed it (batting),” Buttler said. “The bowlers did a fantastic job. If we fielded better, myself included, we would have chased less.”

Siraj and pace bowler Arshad Khan bowled at a good pace and proved captain Gill’s decision to bowl first right as Bengaluru slipped to 42-4 inside the first seven overs.

Virat Kohli (7) started with a cover driven boundary in Siraj’s first over before pulling Khan’s back of the length delivery straight into the hands of Prasidh Krishna at backward square leg in the next over as he walked off to the much disappointment of home team fans.

Buttler missed out a straightforward edge of Phil Salt (14), but Siraj uprooted the off stump of Englishman and also clean bowled Devdutt Padikkal (4). Ishant Sharma then pinned captain Rajat Patidar plumb leg before wicket for 12 as Bengaluru lost four top-order batters.

“It was emotional because I played for seven years here,” Siraj said of his long association with Bengaluru. “There was some nervousness and some emotion … (but) I have belief that I can do well, irrespective of wherever I am playing and that is my mindset.”

Livingstone and Jitesh Sharma (33) shared vital 52-run stand off just 38 balls before left-arm spinner Sai Kishore (2-22) dismissed Sharma and Krunal Pandya in his two successive overs.

But Livingstone took on ace leg-spinner Rashid Khan (0-54) and struck three sixes in his one over after twice getting dropped and Buttler missing out on a stumping chance.

Livingstone cashed in on the chances as Bengaluru scored 64 off the final five overs with Tim David hitting two sixes and three boundaries in his little cameo of 32 off 18 balls.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Tim David is bowled out by Gujarat Titans' Prasidh Krishna during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Liam Livingstone bats during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Gujarat Titans' Sai Kishore, second right, and teammate Gujarat Titans' Ishant Sharma celebrate the dismissal of Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Krunal Pandya during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Virat Kohli walks off the field after losing his wicket to Gujarat Titans' Arshad Khan during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Gujarat Titans' Sai Sudharsan bats during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Gujarat Titans' Jos Butler bats during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Devdutt Padikkal is bowled out by Gujarat Titans' Mohammed Siraj during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Gujarat Titans' Sherfane Rutherford, left, and batting partner Jos Butler run between the wickets to score during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Gujarat Titans' Rashid Khan, right, reacts as Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Liam Livingstone runs between the wickets to score during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Gujarat Titans' Mohammed Siraj appeals unsuccessfully for the wicket of Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Liam Livingstone during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Gujarat Titans' Jos Butler bats during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Becky Pepper-Jackson finished third in the discus throw in West Virginia last year though she was in just her first year of high school. Now a 15-year-old sophomore, Pepper-Jackson is aware that her upcoming season could be her last.

West Virginia has banned transgender girls like Pepper-Jackson from competing in girls and women's sports, and is among the more than two dozen states with similar laws. Though the West Virginia law has been blocked by lower courts, the outcome could be different at the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, which has allowed multiple restrictions on transgender people to be enforced in the past year.

The justices are hearing arguments Tuesday in two cases over whether the sports bans violate the Constitution or the landmark federal law known as Title IX that prohibits sex discrimination in education. The second case comes from Idaho, where college student Lindsay Hecox challenged that state's law.

Decisions are expected by early summer.

President Donald Trump's Republican administration has targeted transgender Americans from the first day of his second term, including ousting transgender people from the military and declaring that gender is immutable and determined at birth.

Pepper-Jackson has become the face of the nationwide battle over the participation of transgender girls in athletics that has played out at both the state and federal levels as Republicans have leveraged the issue as a fight for athletic fairness for women and girls.

“I think it’s something that needs to be done,” Pepper-Jackson said in an interview with The Associated Press that was conducted over Zoom. “It’s something I’m here to do because ... this is important to me. I know it’s important to other people. So, like, I’m here for it.”

She sat alongside her mother, Heather Jackson, on a sofa in their home just outside Bridgeport, a rural West Virginia community about 40 miles southwest of Morgantown, to talk about a legal fight that began when she was a middle schooler who finished near the back of the pack in cross-country races.

Pepper-Jackson has grown into a competitive discus and shot put thrower. In addition to the bronze medal in the discus, she finished eighth among shot putters.

She attributes her success to hard work, practicing at school and in her backyard, and lifting weights. Pepper-Jackson has been taking puberty-blocking medication and has publicly identified as a girl since she was in the third grade, though the Supreme Court's decision in June upholding state bans on gender-affirming medical treatment for minors has forced her to go out of state for care.

Her very improvement as an athlete has been cited as a reason she should not be allowed to compete against girls.

“There are immutable physical and biological characteristic differences between men and women that make men bigger, stronger, and faster than women. And if we allow biological males to play sports against biological females, those differences will erode the ability and the places for women in these sports which we have fought so hard for over the last 50 years,” West Virginia's attorney general, JB McCuskey, said in an AP interview. McCuskey said he is not aware of any other transgender athlete in the state who has competed or is trying to compete in girls or women’s sports.

Despite the small numbers of transgender athletes, the issue has taken on outsize importance. The NCAA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees banned transgender women from women's sports after Trump signed an executive order aimed at barring their participation.

The public generally is supportive of the limits. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in October 2025 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults “strongly” or “somewhat” favored requiring transgender children and teenagers to only compete on sports teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with, while about 2 in 10 were “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed and about one-quarter did not have an opinion.

About 2.1 million adults, or 0.8%, and 724,000 people age 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

Those allied with the administration on the issue paint it in broader terms than just sports, pointing to state laws, Trump administration policies and court rulings against transgender people.

"I think there are cultural, political, legal headwinds all supporting this notion that it’s just a lie that a man can be a woman," said John Bursch, a lawyer with the conservative Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom that has led the legal campaign against transgender people. “And if we want a society that respects women and girls, then we need to come to terms with that truth. And the sooner that we do that, the better it will be for women everywhere, whether that be in high school sports teams, high school locker rooms and showers, abused women’s shelters, women’s prisons.”

But Heather Jackson offered different terms to describe the effort to keep her daughter off West Virginia's playing fields.

“Hatred. It’s nothing but hatred,” she said. "This community is the community du jour. We have a long history of isolating marginalized parts of the community.”

Pepper-Jackson has seen some of the uglier side of the debate on display, including when a competitor wore a T-shirt at the championship meet that said, “Men Don't Belong in Women's Sports.”

“I wish these people would educate themselves. Just so they would know that I’m just there to have a good time. That’s it. But it just, it hurts sometimes, like, it gets to me sometimes, but I try to brush it off,” she said.

One schoolmate, identified as A.C. in court papers, said Pepper-Jackson has herself used graphic language in sexually bullying her teammates.

Asked whether she said any of what is alleged, Pepper-Jackson said, “I did not. And the school ruled that there was no evidence to prove that it was true.”

The legal fight will turn on whether the Constitution's equal protection clause or the Title IX anti-discrimination law protects transgender people.

The court ruled in 2020 that workplace discrimination against transgender people is sex discrimination, but refused to extend the logic of that decision to the case over health care for transgender minors.

The court has been deluged by dueling legal briefs from Republican- and Democratic-led states, members of Congress, athletes, doctors, scientists and scholars.

The outcome also could influence separate legal efforts seeking to bar transgender athletes in states that have continued to allow them to compete.

If Pepper-Jackson is forced to stop competing, she said she will still be able to lift weights and continue playing trumpet in the school concert and jazz bands.

“It will hurt a lot, and I know it will, but that’s what I’ll have to do,” she said.

Heather Jackson, left, and Becky Pepper-Jackson pose for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Heather Jackson, left, and Becky Pepper-Jackson pose for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Becky Pepper-Jackson poses for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The Supreme Court stands is Washington, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FILE - Protestors hold signs during a rally at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on March 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson, file)