South Africa became the fifth team to reach the World Cup quarter-finals on Tuesday, comprehensively ending Ireland's hopes and ramping up the survival pressure on illness-hit England.
JP Duminy agonisingly missed a century by just one run as the Proteas recovered from a poor start to make 272 for 7 in Kolkata before Ireland were dismissed for 141 to lose by 131 runs.
"We wanted to qualify. We've got one round robin game left against Bangladesh and hopefully three good games in the knockout phase. We've done the first part of it now," said South Africa captain Graeme Smith.
South Africa were struggling at 117 for five before Duminy and World Cup debutant Colin Ingram (46), replacing the injured AB de Villiers, put on 87 for the sixth wicket at an eerily quiet 65,000-capacity Eden Gardens.
The 26-year-old Duminy, who also added 65 for the seventh wicket with Johan Botha, was on 99 when he skied a mistimed drive into the safe hands of a diving Kevin O'Brien in the final over.
Ireland were dismissed in the 34th over with Gary Wilson top-scoring with 31 and Morne Morkel and Robin Peterson claiming three wickets each. "We started off pretty well. We got couple of wickets up front. We thought it was important to get wickets to peg them back and I thought we did that pretty much throughout," said Ireland captain William Porterfield.
"We were happy enough at half-time with chasing 270. It was not out of our reach but we consistently lost wickets."
South Africa now top Group B and have joined the four qualifiers from Group A in the quarter-finals — New Zealand, Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Their victory leaves India, West Indies, Bangladesh and England scrambling for the last three spots in their pool.
England's problems piled up on Tuesday when captain Andrew Strauss and off-spinner Graeme Swann missed training with stomach problems and were rated doubtful for the clash against the West Indies in Chennai on Thursday. Fast bowler Jimmy Anderson also needed treatment on a shoulder injury.
England must beat the West Indies to have a chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals, but even then they will need other results to go their way.
With their last-eight place already assured, Pakistan coach Waqar Younis now wants his team to beat defending champions Australia in their final group match on Saturday.
The 1992 champions eased into the last eight with a comfortable seven-wicket win over Zimbabwe on Monday and now face Australia, who are on an unbeaten 33-match streak in the World Cup.
"They are such a big team, world champs, and haven't lost for ages," said Waqar of Australia, whose last defeat in the event came at the hands of Pakistan in 1999.
Meanwhile, Canada's John Davison, who once held the record for the fastest World Cup century, will retire from international cricket after his side's final match against Australia.
Davison, born in Canada but brought up in Australia, smashed his famous hundred off just 67 balls against the West Indies at Centurion in 2003.
"I suppose it's pretty fitting it's against Australia," 40-year-old Davison said of his final international match on Wednesday.
Australia's Matthew Hayden broke Davison's record at the 2007 World Cup and it was broken again at the ongoing tournament by Ireland's Kevin O'Brien, who reached three figures off just 50 balls against England.
SCORECARD
South Africa:
H Amla c Dockrell b Rankin 18
G Smith run out 7
M van Wyk b Dockrell 42
J Kallis run out 19
JP Duminy c K O'Brien b Mooney 99
F du Plessis c Johnston b Stirling 11
C Ingram b Johnston 46
J Botha not out 21
R Peterson not out 0
Extras (b2, lb3, w4) 9
Total (for seven wickets; 50 overs) 272
Fall of wickets: 1-24 (Amla), 2-52 (Smith), 3-84 (van Wyk), 4-95 (Kallis), 5-117 (du Plessis), 6-204 (Ingram), 7-269 (Duminy)
Bowling: Rankin 10-0-59-1 (w1), Johnston 10-0-76-1 (w1), Mooney 8-0-36-1, Dockrell 10-0-37-1, Stirling 10-0-45-1 (w1), Cusack 2-0-14-0 (w1)
Ireland:
W Porterfield c Smith b Morkel 6
P Stirling c Kallis b Morkel 10
E Joyce lbw b Botha 12
N O'Brien c van Wyk b Kallis 10
G Wilson lbw b Peterson 31
K O'Brien c Amla b Peterson 19
A Cusack c Smith b Peterson 7
J Mooney c van Wyk b Kallis 14
T Johnston c van Wyk b Duminy 12
G Dockrell c van Wyk b Morkel 16
B Rankin not out 0
Extras (w4) 4
Total (all out; 33.2 overs) 141
Fall of wickets: 1-8 (Porterfield), 2-19 (Stirling), 3-35 (N O'Brien), 4-51 (Joyce), 5-92 (K O'Brien), 6-92 (Wilson), 7-107 (Cusack), 8-123 (Johnston), 9-137 (Mooney), 10-141 (Dockrell)
Bowling: Steyn 4-1-13-0, Morkel 5.2-0-33-3 (w2), Kallis 6-1-20-2, Botha 8-0-32-1 (w2), Peterson 8-0-32-3, Duminy 2-0-11-1
Result: South Africa win by 131 runs
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
French Touch
Carla Bruni
(Verve)
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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.”
