England continued to enjoy a remarkable turnaround in the fourth Test against India, reaping the benefits of sticking to the basics as they closed in on a huge first innings lead on a deteriorating pitch on Saturday.
A day after Joe Root returned to his traditional approach to batting and notched up an unbeaten ton, it was the turn of England's bowlers to tie down India's batsmen through disciplined bowling on a pitch offering inconsistent bounce.
Young off-spinner Shoaib Bashir (4-84) bowled a marathon spell of 31 overs to break the back of India, who crawled their way to 219-7 by stumps on day two, still trailing by 134 runs.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Dhruv Jurel, on 30, and Kuldeep Yadav, on 17, were batting at the close of play with an unbeaten stand of 42 to add some respectability to India's score.
But the day belonged to Bashir, plucked out of relative obscurity and thrust straight into Test cricket.
The off-spinner came on to bowl in the ninth over of India's innings and remained unchanged from his end until Root replaced him shortly before stumps.
He removed Shubman Gill (38) and Rajat Patidar (17), trapping both lbw. Gill and Patidar remained stuck at the crease throughout their stay and were sitting ducks for Bashir who targeted their pads on an indifferent surface, and succeeded.
Ravindra Jadeja tried to hit his way out of trouble but was caught at short leg to put India in trouble at 131-4 at tea.
Bashir then got the big scalp of top-scorer Yashasvi Jaiswal, who made 73 before the left-hander saw the ball sneak through his defence and crash into the stumps.
Jaiswal looked like the best Indian batsman, again. The nearest England got to dismissing him before his half-century was when Ben Foakes grabbed an edge. Replays, however, confirmed the ball had touched ground before the wicketkeeper collected it.
Third Test star Sarfaraz Khan and all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin were then cleaned up by left-arm spinner Tom Hartley, who used the exaggerated variations in bounce effectively.
Earlier, Root hit an unbeaten 122 after England resumed on 302-7, with the former captain adding 102 invaluable runs with overnight partner Ollie Robinson, who made 58. But the latter's departure brought a quick end to the England innings.
Jadeja returned figures of 4-67 as he ran through the tail to restrict England to 353.
"He was brilliant. He is a great young lad to have in the group," centurion Root said of Bashir.
"He should take a lot of confidence for the rest of this game and going forward as well.
"It looks like the pitch will keep getting worse. If we can get three early wickets, hopefully that puts us in a really strong position," Root added.
India are without a number of first-choice players, with star pacer Jasprit Bumrah being rested from the match. Facing the possibility of a sizeable first-innings deficit, India's bowlers will have almost no room for error when it is their turn to bowl on a pitch that is showing serious wear and tear.
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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.”
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