Ashes 2023: England win by three wickets to make the series 2-1
LEEDS, England: England secured another memorable Ashes victory at Headingley after Harry Brook helped to set up a three-wicket win over Australia in the third Test on Sunday to keep the five-match series alive.
Brook and Chris Woakes had shared a match-changing 59-run partnership for the seventh wicket on the fourth day before Brook was caught off Mitchell Starc to make it an increasingly tense finish. England was then at 230-7 in its second innings with a target of 251.
Playing his 10th Test match, Brook scored 75 off 93 balls with nine fours. He batted with maturity and appeared ready to carry the burden all the way to the final stretch before passing it over to Woakes and Mark Wood (16 not out), who both made an emphatic first impression on their belated introductions to the series.
Woakes hit the winning boundary late in the afternoon session against Starc as England finished on 254-7. Woakes crunched the ball toward the delirious Western Terrace to finish unbeaten on 32.
Australia leads 2-1 with the fourth test at Old Trafford starting on July 19.
By lunch, England had moved to 153-4 and within 98 runs of its target, four years on from a famous Ben Stokes-inspired victory at the same venue.
But the match swung Australia's way early after lunch when England captain Stokes was caught behind for only 13 and Jonny Bairstow (5) was bowled — both against Starc, who finished with 5-78.
Stokes' dismissal was a soft nick down the leg-side robbing the hosts of their inspirational captain and the architect of their 2019 Ashes miracle.
Earlier, England's openers resumed in cautious mood at 27 without loss, adding 15 careful runs to the score before Ben Duckett (23) was trapped in the crease by Starc, lbw to a ball destined for leg stump.
Moeen Ali was the man to replace Duckett at No. 3, a surprise switch with Brook and a hefty promotion from No. 7. The all-rounder has done the job before, but last appeared this high in November 2018.
It was a typically bold gambit from the Brendon McCullum regime but one that did not pay off for Ali though it did allow Brook to bat at No. 5. Ali made five from 15 deliveries and had no answer for a 90 mph rocket from Starc, forcing its way through a modest drive and pounding the stumps.
Brook's stand of 38 with Root was beginning to give the chase a sense of security, but the latter was undone unexpectedly with the lunch break in sight. Swiveling into a pull as the returning Pat Cummins dragged one down, Root gloved it through to the keeper for a tame ending on 21.
Zak Crawley's growing confidence cost him his wicket on 44, throwing himself into a drive off Mitch Marsh and feeding the edge through to Alex Carey. At 93-3, both teams were moving toward their destinations.
England has chased down four bigger totals in the "Bazball" era, including 296 at the same ground last year, but in keeping their hopes of reclaiming the urn afloat this is likely its most satisfying pursuit yet. After squandering promising positions at Edgbaston and Lord's, England are finally on the board and will take renewed belief into the remaining clashes at Old Trafford and the Oval.
The last 12 runs came in a frenzy, short balls flicked and pulled in all directions and Carey — whose controversial stumping of Bairstow at Lord's added an edge in the run-up to this test — delighting the crowd with a late drop. But the final moment was all class, Woakes flaying Starc for four in a rousing win and the latest twist in a superb Ashes series that deservedly stayed alive.
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Rolls Royce plans major expansion in India eyeing jet engine, naval propulsion programmes
New Delhi (PTI): British aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce on Sunday said it is looking at making India its third "home market" outside of the UK in line with a plan to unlock the full potential of opportunities across an array of domains including jet engine, naval propulsion, land systems and advanced engineering.
In an interview to PTI, Sashi Mukundan, the executive vice president of Rolls-Royce India, elaborating on the move, said the company is planning for a "big investment" in the country and listed developing a next-generation aero engine in India as a priority to power the combat jets that New Delhi will produce under the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme.
Besides the UK, Rolls Royce considers the US and Germany as its "home markets" as the company has considerable presence including manufacturing facilities in these two countries.
Mukundan also highlighted how Rolls Royce can contribute significantly to address India's requirement for electric propulsion capability for boosting the Indian Navy's combat prowess.
He suggested that the development of the jet engine for the AMCA involving Rolls Royce could also help India manufacture engines for naval propulsion as the company is among very few engine makers globally to have the capability to "marinize the aero engine".
Mukundan, without divulging specific details, said Rolls Royce was eyeing to make significant investment to expand its footprint in India, noting that the country has "scale, policy clarity, and a strong push" towards a defence and industrial ecosystem that is expanding rapidly and becoming more sophisticated.
"If everything goes well, it would be a significant investment. It'll be big enough that people will notice it, but I don't want to put a number to it. What matters is the impact of this investment, which would be the development of the entire value chain and ecosystem here across sectors that we operate in," he said.
The top Rolls Royce executive said the company will firm up two MoUs with (Memorandum of Understanding) with two defence public sector undertakings in India. While one pact is for manufacturing the engines for the Arjun tanks, the other is for engines for the future ready combat vehicles.
In October, CEO Tufan Erginbilgic, during a business roundtable had conveyed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India is going to be very critical for Rolls-Royce going forward.
"We have developed two other home markets outside the UK -- the US and Germany. We want to make India our next one. What do we mean by that? We want to do everything across the field, and it's not just defence," Mukundan said.
"That ambition cuts across defence, naval propulsion, land systems, manufacturing, advanced engineering skills, and technology development, all of which align closely with India's own priorities," he said.
On the engines for AMCA, Mukundan said extensive discussions and background work are underway on how to move forward.
"If India is thinking about next-generation engines, Rolls-Royce is probably the best partner. We have the capability, we have the experience both in India and globally, and we have repeatedly demonstrated that we can do it," he said.
Mukundan said all of the engine design work can be done in India, with the relevant technology transferred and all new intellectual property (IP) rights can be jointly owned with India.
"Once you own design IP, you have strategic control. Manufacturing then becomes the next stage, and that is always more complex. It's about ensuring that capability is built systematically and safely," he said.
The Rolls Royce top executive said Rolls Royce engine for AMCA could be helpful for India for developing electric propulsion for naval engines.
Elaborating on it, he said essentially, electric and hybrid propulsion naval engines are marine gas turbines, which are built from the aero engine core.
"Rolls-Royce is one of the few engine makers who have the capability to marinize the aero engine at scale. Why this matters is that it is not viable to build an entire marine propulsion supply chain from scratch here because the quantities in the navy are very low," he said.
"But if the aero-core derivative is built and co-designed in India, the overlapping supply chain becomes justifiable and can support both the aero and naval marine," he noted.
Mukundan also highlighted Rolls Royce's dominance in the global jet engine manufacturing.
"If we look at it globally, we've been building and certifying engines every 18 months including combat and commercial. If I talk specifically about combat, we power the Eurofighter Typhoon with our EJ200 engine, which is one of our recent engine programmes, with 90 kilonewton thrust capacity."
He also said that Rolls Royce is leading the mandate of the Global Combat Aircraft Programme, which is an initiative of the UK along with Japan and Italy to develop a sixth-generation aircraft engine.
"We were also part of a joint program where GE and Rolls-Royce together developed an engine specifically for the fifth generation F-35, which is another example of recent engine development, particularly in the thrust range or even above the thrust range that India is looking to build," Mukundan said.
The F 136 engine was the only engine specifically developed for the F-35 aircraft, with engine development led by GE Aviation and Rolls-Royce.
The executive vice president sounded bullish on India and especially pointed out the Indian government's "visible focus" on building indigenous capability across naval, land, and air domains.
"Over the long term, India will be a major global power. And India is increasingly supporting others in the Global South. For us, there is a lot to work with, and it is all linked."
"It's not just about market access; India is one of the few places where all the pieces genuinely fit together."
"For Rolls-Royce, that makes India not just an important market, but a long-term strategic home," he said.
