Steve Smith and George Bailey both scored centuries as Australia cruised to a five wicket win over India in the first one day international at the WACA ground on Tuesday.
After Indian opener Rohit Sharma scored an unbeaten 171 to lead his country to an imposing 309-3, Australia got away to a rocky start when left arm seamer Barinder Sran removed both openers in his first three overs.
Playing on a lifeless pitch which offered nothing for the bowlers, Bailey and Smith played brilliantly to frustrate the Indian attack.
They rotated the strike throughout the innings to keep the score moving, taking quick singles and hitting boundaries when they needed to increase the pace.
Bailey was the more aggressive early and reached his century before his captain, taking just 106 balls with six boundaries and two sixes.
Smith began to accelerate and followed Bailey to three figures soon after, off only 97 balls including six fours and a towering six.
Bailey eventually fell when he tried to smash another six off Ravi Ashwin and was caught on the boundary by Bhuvneshwar Kumar but Smith continued his incredible vein of form.
He smashed his way to 149 but with only two runs needed for victory he chipped Sran to cover where Virat Kohli claimed an easy catch, leaving James Faulkner to hit the winning run.
“I thought we did well in the field to restrict them to 309,” Smith said.
“They looked like they were going to get 350 at one stage.”
India must have been confident of defending their total after Sran’s impressive start.
He brilliantly caught and bowled Finch (8) in his second over, then had the dangerous Warner (5) caught at midwicket by Kohli in his third.
But the ease with which Australia chased the score down showed that India had not scored quickly enough in the middle of their innings and were at least 20 runs short of a competitive total.
“I think it’s important that after you score 300 runs you bowl well and I think in the middle overs when the spinners were bowling they gave up too many runs,” Dhoni said.
“I was quite happy with the fast bowling performance -- I thought they bowled well and hit the right spots.”
Earlier Sharma and Kohli (91) shared a 207-run partnership for the second wicket against a toothless Australian attack.
India lost opener Shikhar Dhawan (9) in the sixth over when he top-edged an attempted pull from Josh Hazlewood straight to Mitchell Marsh at deep backward square leg.
However, that brought Kohli to the crease and signalled a long period of complete dominance over the Australian attack as he raced to the highest individual ODI score against Australia on Australian soil, eclipsing Viv Richards’ 153 not out for the West Indies in 1979.
Sharma smashed 13 fours and cleared the boundary seven times to the delight of the large contingent of Indian fans at the ground.
He built his innings steadily, bringing up his 50 from 63 balls, his century from 122 and his 150 from 155, mixing quick singles with some powerful boundary hitting.
It was the fourth time Sharma had scored 150 in ODIs, a record only surpassed by countryman Sachin Tendulkar.
Sharma lost Kohli with the score on 243 and was joined at the crease by Dhoni, who joined in with 18 rapid runs before he was caught brilliantly at mid-on by Boland.
However, despite the late flourish the Indians fell short and Australia were able to draw first blood in the five-match series.
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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.”
