Brett Lee, Lakshmipathy Balaji and Sunil Narine bowled sensationally last night as Kolkata Knight Riders beat Deccan Chargers by five wickets in the eastern Indian city of Cuttack.
The Australian Lee took one for 15 off his four overs to keep it tight at one end as fellow fast bowler Balaji (2-22) and Narine, the West Indian off-spinner (2-26) took the wickets to derail the Chargers batting despite a fighting fifty from Shikhar Dhawan, the opening batsman.
Lee, who won the man-of-the-match award, said their bowling was down to understanding the conditions well.
"We summed the wicket up pretty well today," he said. "We tried to put the new ball up there to try and get the nicks, but then we took pace off it."
Balaji was clearly the bowler of the night as he troubled the Deccan batsmen with subtle variations. He accounted for the wickets of Kumar Sangakkara, the Deccan captain and opening batsman, as well as Ankit Sharma.
Chasing 127 to win, Kolkata reached their target in 19 overs.
Considered one of the most promising seamers of his generation in India in the early 2000s, Balaji seems to have taken to the Twenty20 format even as a comeback into the India team remains a distant dream.
The Chennai boy made his India debut in a forgettable outing against West Indies in 2002 when he was taken apart by Chris Gayle and conceded 44 runs off just four overs before being consigned to domestic cricket. There he got his act together and made a sensational comeback during India's memorable 2003/04 tour of Australia where he was among the wickets in one-day series.
He continued to bowl – and even occasionally bat – consistently well in both the Tests and one-dayers in Pakistan in 2004 before he broke down with one injury after another.
The 30 year old, who has taken 27 wickets from eight Test outings and has 34 wickets in 30 one-dayers, can still hope and dream of making a comeback – this time in Twenty20 cricket – if he continues to bowl the way he has.
Earlier in the day, Shaun Marsh hit an unbeaten 68 off 40 balls as Kings XI Punjab defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets yesterday in Sachin Tendulkar's comeback match, but both captains acknowledged it was the difference in fielding standards by both sides that determined the result.
“Our fielding set the tone,” said David Hussey, the Punjab captain, before adding that, “164 was about par.”
Harbhajan Singh, his opposite number, said: "They [Punjab] stopped about 15-odd runs. Had we fielded the way they did, we could have won."
But credit must also go to Marsh who hit five fours and three sixes and shared a match-winning fourth wicket stand of 58 off 38 balls with Hussey (21) as Kings XI romped to 164 for four in 19.3 overs.
Tendulkar, who missed the previous four games for Mumbai with a hand injury, scored 23 before he was run out but it was James Franklin’s 79 with six fours and four sixes that anchored Mumbai to 163 for six. Mumbai were on course to get more runs before Dinesh Karthik (35) was run out in the 16th over with the score on 131 while going for the second run.
Praveen Kumar got rid of Franklin and Harbhajan off successive full tosses as Mumbai could score only 33 in the last five overs and lost four wickets.
The Kings XI openers Nitin Saini (30) and Mandeep Singh (24) provided a solid platform of 48 before Marsh and Hussey kept scoring at a strong pace.
Mumbai still had a chance with Kings XI needing 20 off the last two overs. However, Marsh hit Munaf Patel over mid-wicket for six in the penultimate over and then hit Thisara Perera’s low full toss over point boundary for another six in the last over to win.
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At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Poacher
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
