Limited-overs cricket has left batsmen with a weak defence making them particularly susceptible on turning tracks, India captain Virat Kohli said ahead of the final Test against England which begins in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
India won the third Test inside two days after 30 wickets tumbled in five sessions in what was the shortest completed match since 1935.
Debates raged over the suitability of the pitch but Kohli has blamed poor batting by both sides in the low-scoring contest.
Kohli dismissed the "noise" around the spinning track, saying seaming pitches never attract that kind of criticism despite witnessing similar collapses.
"It's always been the case that spinning tracks come into focus way more," Kohli, whose team are 2-1 up in the four-Test series, said during a video conference.
"When the ball seams on a particular pitch and teams get bundled out for 40-50-60, no one writes about the pitches.
"I would still maintain that the result in the last game was purely down to bizarre batting from both sides."
Spinners claimed 28 of the 30 wickets in that match and left-arm spinner Axar Patel was player-of-the-match for his 11-wicket match haul.
"Having a strong defence is key to surviving on spinning tracks," Kohli, considered a modern batting great, explained.
"Test cricket has become more result-oriented, thanks to the influence of white-ball cricket. But I believe one by-product is that it has also compromised a batsman's defensive technique.
"Grinding out four-five sessions has gone out of fashion. Batsmen are not focusing enough on building a solid defence, because they have to switch to other formats."
The 32-year-old said batsmen cannot just sweep their way out against the spinners.
"There are other ways to survive spin. For me, the best solution is playing a confident defensive shot, which won't send the ball to short-leg of silly point.
"That part of batsmanship has taken a back seat in today's cricket."
India will be without pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah who has skipped the match over personal reasons.
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Gallery: India win third Test
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"Jasprit did not play the Test match that we won in Chennai," Kohli said. "Having him is a big boost but having said that our bench strength is very strong at the moment."
A win or a draw for India will secure the series and a place in the Test championship final against New Zealand. A win for England would seriously complicate matters for the hosts, and help Australia.
England opened the four-Test series with a 227-run victory. India rallied to level it in Chennai with a 317-run victory and won the third third game by 10 wickets at Ahmedabad, where Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin dominated.
England captain Joe Root is confident his team can level the series. “We’ve got all the ingredients, all the pieces and all the skills to exploit and succeed in these conditions,” he said.
“It is important we harness that, have it in the front of our mind and be a bit braver actually; play with a little bit more freedom.
“It’s having that confidence to play the ball in front of you, not having the baggage from the previous delivery, not over-thinking the pitch, trying to see things for what they are. You need to be able to put pressure back on the bowlers.”
Root said the decision to go in with four seamers in the day-nighter in the third test was an error in judgment.
“You look at the side for the last match and we got that wrong, we read the pitch wrong in terms of the way we selected the team," he said.
"We didn’t envisage it would spin as much. If the pitch is anything like the last one of course Dom [Bess] would be a fantastic option on this surface.”
India has not lost two tests in a home series since 2012, when England won.
“You look at India’s record at home in recent times and it’s incredible,” Root said. “So, for us to come away with a drawn series would be a really good achievement, especially off the back of the last two games.
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Janet Yellen's Firsts
- In 2014, she became the first woman to lead the US Federal Reserve
- In 1999, she became the first female chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
HAEMOGLOBIN DISORDERS EXPLAINED
Thalassaemia is part of a family of genetic conditions affecting the blood known as haemoglobin disorders.
Haemoglobin is a substance in the red blood cells that carries oxygen and a lack of it triggers anemia, leaving patients very weak, short of breath and pale.
The most severe type of the condition is typically inherited when both parents are carriers. Those patients often require regular blood transfusions - about 450 of the UAE's 2,000 thalassaemia patients - though frequent transfusions can lead to too much iron in the body and heart and liver problems.
The condition mainly affects people of Mediterranean, South Asian, South-East Asian and Middle Eastern origin. Saudi Arabia recorded 45,892 cases of carriers between 2004 and 2014.
A World Health Organisation study estimated that globally there are at least 950,000 'new carrier couples' every year and annually there are 1.33 million at-risk pregnancies.
Know before you go
- Jebel Akhdar is a two-hour drive from Muscat airport or a six-hour drive from Dubai. It’s impossible to visit by car unless you have a 4x4. Phone ahead to the hotel to arrange a transfer.
- If you’re driving, make sure your insurance covers Oman.
- By air: Budget airlines Air Arabia, Flydubai and SalamAir offer direct routes to Muscat from the UAE.
- Tourists from the Emirates (UAE nationals not included) must apply for an Omani visa online before arrival at evisa.rop.gov.om. The process typically takes several days.
- Flash floods are probable due to the terrain and a lack of drainage. Always check the weather before venturing into any canyons or other remote areas and identify a plan of escape that includes high ground, shelter and parking where your car won’t be overtaken by sudden downpours.
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
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Golden Shoe top five (as of March 1):
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