NORTH SOUND, Antigua and Barbuda // West Indies inspired by a career-best spell from leg-spinner Anthony Martin, completed a 103-run victory to secure a consolation victory in the fourth One-day International against world champions India.
Rohit Sharma led the way with 39, and was one of a handful of Indian batsmen that got starts without carrying on, as Martin captured four for 36 from 10 overs, and West Indies successfully defended a target of 250.
Martin, later named Man-of-the-Match, rounded off the victory, when he had Ishant Sharma stumped for a duck with his final delivery of the match at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.
The victory was a consolation for West Indies, after India took an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the five-match series with a victory two days ago at the same venue.
The final match of the series will be played on Thursday at Sabina Park in the Jamaica capital of Kingston.
"We didn't bat very well, but all credit must go to the West Indies because they played really well in this game," said India captain Suresh Raina.
"We are always disappointed when we are on the losing side, but West Indies batted really well, and they bowled really well - and we did not do things well in this game.
"Our shot selection was really wrong. We lost our shape, and we did not have any partnerships.
"Rohit was there playing well again, but Yusuf (Pathan) and I got out at a crucial time, but credit must go to the West Indies for the way they played."
India's bowlers had done their best to maintain the status quo, but Kieron Pollard top scored with 70 and Lendl Simmons supported with 67, helping West Indies reach 249 for eight.
Praveen Kumar was the most successful Indian bowler with three for 37 from 10 overs, and leg-spinner Amit Mishra captured two for 56 from 10 overs.
The World champions however, were left to chase their highest target of the series, and started brightly.
But they kept losing wickets at inopportune times, allowing the West Indies bowlers to dictate terms.
Manoj Tiwary was caught behind for two in the second over off West Indies captain Darren Sammy, who held a stupendous return catch in the 10th over to dismiss Parthi Patel for 26, leaving India 41 for two.
The Indians continued to make steady progress, but Subramanian Badrinath was caught behind down the leg-side for 12 in the 17th over to precipitate an unstable period for the visitors.
Four more wickets fell for 62 between the 21st and the 31st over, including Sharma, India's batting hero in the series, caught at deep mid-wicket off Martin, leaving the batsmen to fend for themselves.
Andre Russell ended with three for 16 from seven overs, and Sammy took two for 43, breathing a huge sigh of relief following the game.
"We did a lot more things better in this game," he said. "Throughout this series we have been improving, and in this game, we put a decent target of 250 on the board.
"The bowlers throughout the series have been collecting wickets early, and this time we were in a similar situation, and handled it differently.
"We had a different mindset, and the guys put the ball in the right areas, and we got the wickets we needed to complete a victory."
SCORECARD
West Indies:
Lendl Simmons run out (Tiwary) 67
Danza Hyatt c Tiwary b I. Sharma 1
Ramnaresh Sarwan c Tiwary b Kumar 1
Darren Bravo c Tiwary b Mishra 15
Marlon Samuels lbw b Mishra 8
Kieron Pollard c I. Sharma b Ashwin 70
Carlton Baugh c Kohli b Kumar 39
Andre Russell c Kohli b Kumar 25
Darren Sammy not out 1
Kemar Roach not out 4
Extras: (7lb, 8w, 3 nb) 18
TOTAL: (for eight wickets, 50 overs) 249
Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-12, 3-65, 4-89, 5-103, 6-199, 7-240, 8-240.
Did not bat: Anthony Martin.
Bowling: Praveen Kumar 10-3-37-3 (1w), Ishant Sharma 10-0-60-1 (3nb, 5w), Ravichandran Ashwin 10-1-39-0, Amit Mishra 10-3-56-2 (1w), Yusuf Pathan 6-0-24-0 (1w), Manoj Tiwary 4-0-26-0.
India:
Parthiv Patel c and b Sammy 26
Manoj Tiwary c wk Baugh b Sammy 2
Virat Kohli st Baugh b Martin 21
Subramaniam Badrinath c wk Baugh b Russell 12
Rohit Sharma c Bravo b Martin 39
Suresh Raina c Pollard b Martin 10
Yusuf Pathan c Roach b Simmons 1
Ravichandran Ashwin c Samuels b Russell 15
Praveen Kumar c Sammy b Russell 6
Amit Mishra not out 5
Ishant Sharma st Baugh b Martin 0
Extras: (4b, 2lb, 2w) 8
TOTAL: (all out, 39 overs) 146
Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-41, 3-62, 4-82, 5-111, 6-114, 7-124, 8-138, 9-145, 10-146.
Bowling: Kemar Roach 8-1-22-0, Darren Sammy 9-0-43-2, Andre Russell 7-0-16-3 (1w), Kieron Pollard 4-0-20-0 (1w), Anthony Martin 10-0-36-4, Lendl Simmons 1-0-3-1.
Result: West Indies won by 103 runs.
Honeymoonish
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
UAE gold medallists:
Omar Al Suweidi (46kg), Khaled Al Shehhi (50kg), Khalifa Humaid Al Kaabi (60kg), Omar Al Fadhli (62kg), Mohammed Ali Al Suweidi (66kg), Omar Ahmed Al Hosani (73), all in the U18’s, and Khalid Eskandar Al Blooshi (56kg) in the U21s.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
MATCH INFO
Manchester City 3
Danilo (16'), Bernardo Silva (34'), Fernandinho (72')
Brighton & Hove Albion 1
Ulloa (20')
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.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final, second leg (first-leg score):
Manchester City (0) v Tottenham Hotspur (1), Wednesday, 11pm UAE
Match is on BeIN Sports
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