Gill and Buttler bat Gujarat up to second in IPL after big win over Hyderabad

AHMEDABAD, India (AP) — Captain Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler lashed half-centuries as Gujarat Titans defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by 38 runs in the Indian Premier League on Friday.

Gujarat racked up 224-6 thanks to Gill’s 76 off 38 balls, Buttler’s 64 off 37 and Sai Sudharsan's 48 off 23, and Hyderabad never look threatening as it was restricted to 186-6.

Fast bowlers Prasidh Krishna, 2-19, and Mohammed Siraj, 2-33, stalled Hyderabad's chase.

Hyderabad top-scorer Abhishek Sharma, with 74, got little support from the other end.

The win lifted Gujarat to second on the 10-team table, while Hyderabad, a finalist last year, lay at ninth and on the brink of elimination from playoffs contention.

The 225 target was steep, and only steeper after Krishna removed opener Travis Head for 20 to Rashid Khan's stunning diving catch and No. 4 Klaasen for 23.

Ishan Kishan continued to struggle since his century in the opening game as he labored for 17 balls to 13 runs, and Gerald Coetzee, playing his first match of the season, found a leading edge and gave Krishna a regulation catch at deep third man.

Sharma did the bulk of the scoring and hit six sixes and four boundaries before Gujarat sealed the game with four wickets for six runs within 12 balls.

Siraj took out Aniket Verma and Kamindu Mendis for a combined three runs and was on a hat trick but captain Pat Cummins defended it.

Hyderabad, apart from Sharma though, struggled to pose a threat.

Openers Gill and Sudharsan set the platform for Gujarat.

Their electrifying 82 runs together off 41 balls in the powerplay, including 13 boundaries, was Gujarat’s best ever.

The left-handed Sudharsan, who smashed five boundaries in one over off Mohammed Shami, became the leading run-scorer in this IPL. He's also the second fastest batter in Twenty20s to complete 2,000 runs, in 54 matches.

Sudharsan was out in the seventh over, caught behind, but Buttler joined Gill and upped the ante with smart, powerful hitting.

Gill reached his fifty in 25 balls, and was run out at 149-2 on a single he called, by Harshal Patel’s throw deflected by wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen. Gill hit 10 fours and two sixes.

Buttler, dropped on 22 by Cummins, reached his fifty in 31 balls. He eventually fell to a catch on the boundary off a Cummins delivery in the penultimate over.

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Sunrisers Hyderabad's Abhishek Sharma celebrates after scoring fifty runs during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddharaj Solanki)

Gujarat Titans players celebrates the dismissal of Sunrisers Hyderabad's Ishan Kishan during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddharaj Solanki)

Sunrisers Hyderabad's Abhishek Sharma plays a shot during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddharaj Solanki)

Sunrisers Hyderabad's Abhishek Sharma plays a shot during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddharaj Solanki)

Gujarat Titans' Prasidh Krishna celebrates the dismissal of Sunrisers Hyderabad's Travis Head during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddharaj Solanki)

Gujarat Titans players celebrates the dismissal of Sunrisers Hyderabad's Travis Head during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddharaj Solanki)

Sunrisers Hyderabad's captain Pat Cummins, left, and Sunrisers Hyderabad's Abhishek Sharma celebrates the dismissal of Gujarat Titans' Jos Butler during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddharaj Solanki)

Gujarat Titans' Jos Butler plays a shot during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddharaj Solanki)

Gujarat Titans' Jos Butler plays a shot during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddharaj Solanki)

Gujarat Titans' captain Shubman Gill celebrates after scoring fifty runs during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddharaj Solanki)

Gujarat Titans' captain Shubman Gill, right, and Sai Sudharsan greets each other during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddharaj Solanki)

Gujarat Titans' Sai Sudharsan plays a shot during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddharaj Solanki)

Gujarat Titans' captain Shubman Gill plays a shot during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Siddharaj Solanki)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)