Rahmanullah Gurbaz hits maiden T20I century to lead Afghanistan to victory over UAE

Rahmanullah Gurbaz rocked the Sharjah Cricket Stadium with his maiden T20I century on Friday night.

The diminutive southpaw smashed seven sixes and an equal number of fours in a brilliant innings of exactly 100 runs from 52 balls as he led Afghanistan to a 72-run victory over the UAE in the first instalment of a three-match bilateral series.

Gurbaz reached his half century in just 24 balls with a six off pacer Ali Naseer over the long off that landed outside the stadium. He brought up his 100 by hitting seamer Junaid Seddique for a flat six over the same area.

He was eventually dismissed by a spectacular catch from Basil Hameed, who timed his jump perfectly to pluck the ball out of the air with his right hand just inches away from the boundary rope.

Gurbaz, who bettered his previous highest score of 87 against Zimbabwe in Abu Dhabi in 2021, featured in an entertaining 137-run stand from 73 balls for the second wicket with his captain Ibrahim Zadran, who struck 59 with four boundaries and a couple for the maximum.

The UAE, electing to field first, had managed to just about contain the Afghans in the early going. Hazratullah Zazai cut Muhammad Jawadullah to the backward point for a boundary and lofted Junaid over deep mid-wicket for a maximum to take the score to 13 after two overs.

His fellow opener Gurbaz then sent Seddique’s first delivery of his second over out of the ground and pulled one to the square leg fence to set the tempo by taking 15 from the third over and take the total to 30.

Ayaan Afzal Khan provided the breakthrough for the hosts. The left-arm spinner removed Zazai with his first delivery, the Afghan batter top edging for Aravind to hold him at mid-wicket.

Nilansh Keshwani went for 18 in his second over with Gurbaz picking up the pace and lofting him over the long-on and long-off for maximums and then bludgeoning one to the cover boundary.

The visitors picked up thereafter with Gurbaz and Zadran, and later Azmatullah Omarzai with a little cameo eight-ball 19 not out, entertaining the 5,000-plus partisan Afghan crowd to finish on 203-3.

The UAE, in reply, lost Khalid Shah in the very first over. The Afghan quick Fazalhaq Farooqi got one through the left-hander’s defence and Muhammad Waseem hit Naveen ul Haq straight to Zazai at mid-on to leave the hosts 6-2 in the second over.

The UAE were never in the race after losing the openers Shah and Waseem. A chase was never on with the UAE managing to put up a respectable 131-4 with Vriitya Aravind stroking an unbeaten 70 in 60 balls.

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.”

Rahmanullah Gurbaz hits maiden T20I century to lead Afghanistan to victory over UAE

Wicketkeeper batsman smashes 70 runs in boundaries in his 52-ball ton