Mahela Jayawardene steered Sri Lanka to a lead of more than a hundred runs in the second Test at Headingley after Moeen Ali proved an unlikely bowling hero for England.
Sri Lanka were 214 for four in their second innings at stumps on Sunday’s third day, a lead of 106 runs.
Jayawardene was 55 not out and Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews 24 not out, with two days remaining to decide the fate of this two-match series following the drawn first Test at Lord’s.
Off-spinner Ali, primarily a batsman and in just his second Test, stunned Sri Lanka with two wickets for no runs in three balls to dismiss Kumar Sangakkara and Lahiru Thirimanne.
Earlier, Mathews took his Test-best figures of four for 44, with fellow seamer Shaminda Eranga enjoying a return of four for 93 as England – 320 for six overnight on the back of Australia-born opener Sam Robson’s maiden Test century – were bowled out for 365.
The pick of the four England wickets that fell Sunday came when all-rounder Mathews produced a superb off-cutter to clean bowl tailender Liam Plunkett.
England’s seamers then repeatedly bowled too short.
And when James Anderson did induce an edge from Dimuth Karunaratne, then on four, second slip Chris Jordan dropped the catch.
“It is pretty even stevens at the moment,” England assistant coach Paul Farbrace, formerly head coach of Sri Lanka, told Sky Sports.
“The plan is to get the ball fuller and early on it might have been a fraction short.
“The bowlers know their game, they are experienced and if they have missed their length by a fraction, occasionally that happens.”
It took fast bowler Plunkett, who in the first innings had taken a Test-best five for 64 on his Yorkshire home ground, to make the breakthrough England so badly needed when he had Kaushal Silva (13) caught behind off a full-length delivery.
Sangakkara was quickly into his stride, going down on one knee to drive Plunkett through the covers for a boundary.
Karunaratne’s erratic innings came to an end when, on 45, he gloved Plunkett down the legside to wicketkeeper Matt Prior.
He reviewed New Zealand umpire Billy Bowden’s decision but replays confirmed he was out, having faced 51 balls with three boundaries.
Left-hander Sangakkara struck two stylish boundaries off Anderson, straight down the group and a whip through mid-wicket, to become only the fourth batsman to score fifties in seven successive Test innings after West Indies greats Everton Weekes and Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Zimbabwe’s Andy Flower.
However, Ali did for Sangakkara when the batsman played down the wrong line and was lbw for 55.
Sangakkara reviewed the decision but, with replays confirming his dismissal, it was the end of a 103-ball innings including six fours and a stand of 79 with Jayawardene.
Ali then struck again when he bowled Thirimanne for his second nought of the match with a superb delivery that drifted in towards middle-and-leg and then turned past the outside edge to hit the left-hander’s middle stump.
That meant Sri Lanka vice-captain Thirimanne had scored just four runs in four innings this series.
But Jayawardene was still there, while Mathews had made a hundred at Lord’s.
Jayawardene’s single off Ali then saw the veteran right-hander to a 103-ball fifty including five fours.
Mathews then edged Jordan to give Sri Lanka a lead of a hundred before next ball driving him through the offside for an emphatic boundary.
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Uefa Nations League: How it Works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
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.”
