Kartik Tyagi delivered a nerveless final over as Rajasthan Royals stole victory from Punjab Kings, on a night when their young charges stood up to be counted in Dubai.
How victory was achieved was remarkable to witness. Punjab had been cruising to their victory target of 186, after their openers Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul razed the youthful Rajasthan attack.
The two India players made 120 between them within 12 overs. Although they departed soon after each other, Punjab were still set for victory.
With Nicholas Pooran and Aiden Markram at the wicket they needed just eight off the last two overs, and then four off the last.
Tyagi, the 20-year-old seamer, then sent down five dot balls in the final over, dismissed Pooran and Deepak Hooda in the process, prompting frenzied celebrations from his team as Rajasthan won by two runs.
The Royals arrived in the UAE for the resumption of this Indian Premier League campaign without almost all their household names.
Jofra Archer, the player of the series last year here, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes are all absent.
In their absence, some of the franchise’s young charges look intent on making names of themselves.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, 19, had a nightmare time on his last IPL tour of duty in the Emirates, despite arriving with an impressive reputation from age-group cricket.
He quickly went about attempting to right the wrongs of 2020 this time around. He shared in a 54-run opening stand in the power play with new recruit Evin Lewis, only to later perish one run short of his first IPL half-century.
While Jaiswal’s credentials were well known from Under 19 cricket, Mahipal Lomror is less vaunted.
And yet the left-hander stole the show with his hitting in the middle of the Rajasthan innings.
The 21-year-old batsman has played just eight IPL games since first being recruited to Delhi Daredevils in 2018, and none previously for Rajasthan this season.
Fans were left asking where he had been all this time, though, as he blazed 43 off 17 balls.
New balls had to be delivered out to the wicket four times – including twice in two balls off debuting England spinner Adil Rashid – as Lomror kept smoking them over the LED display screens, and into the uninhabited lower tier stands.
His departure, though, stalled Rajasthan’s push. He was one of Arshdeep Singh's five victims, as Punjab took seven wickets in the last 36 balls of the innings, conceding just 49 runs in the process.
Pursuing 186 to win looked to be an easy task for Punjab, especially once Agarwal, who made 67 in 43 balls, and captain Rahul had put on a dominant first-wicket alliance.
Rahul, fell one short of 50, after Rajasthan finally held on to a catch off Punjab’s captain – having previously dropped three.
How they managed to contrive to lose from that position was stunning.
“It is a tough one to swallow that you haven't learnt from your previous mistakes,” Rahul said.
“We need to see how we can handle pressure better.”
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.”
Museum of the Future in numbers
- 78 metres is the height of the museum
- 30,000 square metres is its total area
- 17,000 square metres is the length of the stainless steel facade
- 14 kilometres is the length of LED lights used on the facade
- 1,024 individual pieces make up the exterior
- 7 floors in all, with one for administrative offices
- 2,400 diagonally intersecting steel members frame the torus shape
- 100 species of trees and plants dot the gardens
- Dh145 is the price of a ticket
PRIMERA LIGA FIXTURES
All times UAE ( 4 GMT)
Saturday
Atletico Madrid v Sevilla (3pm)
Alaves v Real Madrid (6.15pm)
Malaga v Athletic Bilbao (8.30pm)
Girona v Barcelona (10.45pm)
Sunday
Espanyol v Deportivo la Coruna (2pm)
Getafe v Villarreal (6.15pm)
Eibar v Celta Vigo (8.30pm)
Las Palmas v Leganes (8.30pm)
Real Sociedad v Valencia (10.45pm)
Monday
Real Betis v Levante (11.pm)
