Cricket is not a difficult sport. Bat well, bowl well, field well and, as a rule, you will win more often that not.
The fact that, until yesterday, August 6 last year was the most recent time England had tasted victory in a Test match, gives some hint at how often they have ticked all those boxes in the same five-day period of late.
After a victory as emphatic as the 266-run win over India in the third Test in Southampton yesterday, which levelled the series at 1-1, it seems odd England’s drought had been so long.
There were 10 Tests without a victory in the past 12 months and a lot of criticism has fallen the way of Alastair Cook, the England captain, with calls for him to resign after losing the second Test at Lord’s by 95 runs last week.
This success, as well as scoring two half-centuries in the match, will take some of the pressure off Cook.
In this match he seemed more confident in the field, although, thanks to poor Indian batting, there were few sizeable partnerships that required a lot of thought to break.
England batted well to accumulate 569 for seven after winning the toss, but arguably the biggest difference to recent encounters was with the ball.
Teams need – barring a freak match in which there is a declaration or two – to take 20 wickets to win a Test match and England have struggled achieving that.
On that winless run they bowled out their opponents twice in three of the 10 matches.
The bowling is where there has been less heat on Cook.
Until this Test, James Anderson had looked as if his best days were behind him. His pace had slowed and his ability to swing the ball had become more predictable.
Stuart Broad can be unplayable when he finds his range, but he does not do it often enough to be truly considered one of the world’s best.
The hunt for a third and fourth seam option is continuing but Liam Plunkett, Chris Jordan, Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes have all been used this summer and none of them have put down a convincing claim for one of the roles.
Most worry has been in regard to the spin option. Moeen Ali was considered the back-up while serving as an all-rounder as England hunted for a replacement for Graeme Swann, who retired during the Ashes series in Australia last December after 255 wickets at an average of 29.96.
But Ali’s heroics in Southampton as he took six for 67 in the second innings and eight in the match, mean the hunt can be slowed, or even called off – at least for now.
Ali, who only made his Test debut last month, did take advantage of some average batting at times from the Indians, but he bowled a consistent line, got the ball in the right areas enough times, and was rewarded.
It was fitting he took the final wicket of Pankaj Singh as a reward for his efforts and for being one of the bright spots on what has been until this match a disappointing summer for England.
Ali, at 27, had already made his mark in his Test career with the bat, thanks to his gutsy unbeaten 108 in Leeds in the second Test against Sri Lanka, where he batted in vain for more than six hours in a fruitless attempt to prevent an England defeat.
He is far from the finished article with the ball, but yesterday’s efforts, which take his wicket tally for the series to 15, mean Ali has earned the right to be persevered with.
It also gives England time to look at whether Simon Kerrigan, who was badly mauled by the Australians last summer in his lone Test appearance, is ready for another shot.
It seems Monty Panesar has become terminally out of favour with the establishment.
Ali has been expensive with an economy rate of 3.62, which has prevented Cook from having the control he has needed on the occasions when the pace bowlers have had no joy at the other end.
There is also the expectation that there will be sterner challenges ahead for Ali than this young Indian batting line-up.
How he deals with Australia and their attack-minded batsmen, who have tried to smash many a spinner out of a game with some big hitting, will be fascinating next summer when the next Ashes series takes place.
Ali was unlucky not to get the man-of-the-match award, but his teammate Anderson, bowling as fast as he has done for a long time, was a worthy recipient for his seven wickets in the match.
If today’s ICC hearing into his Level 3 charge following his altercation with Ravindra Jadeja in the first Test at Trent Bridge goes against Anderson and leads to a suspension, then that will put huge pressure on Ali and the rest of the England attack to fill the void.
Broad’s three first innings wickets were the only other ones to go the way of an English pace bowler in the match.
Woakes bowled well without reward, while Jordan struggled with his run-up and his line, and it will be a shock if the latter features again this summer.
Despite a welcome win, England fans should not get too ahead of themselves. They had the best of the batting conditions, made full use of them, and then bowled with an accuracy and determination they have not shown for a long time.
The trick is doing it repeatedly and the challenge is to do it again in the fourth Test, which begins Thursday in Manchester.
gcaygill@thenational.ae
Follow us on twitter at @SprtNationalUAE
Torbal Rayeh Wa Jayeh
Starring: Ali El Ghoureir, Khalil El Roumeithy, Mostafa Abo Seria
Stars: 3
ZAYED SUSTAINABILITY PRIZE
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Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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.”
