New Zealand's Ish Sodhi (C) celebrates with his teammates after taking the wicket of Pakistan's captain Shahid Afridi. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
New Zealand's Ish Sodhi (C) celebrates with his teammates after taking the wicket of Pakistan's captain Shahid Afridi. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

World T20: New Zealand no longer ‘lesser team’ after beating Pakistan, India and Australia



The Black Caps' undefeated march to the World Twenty20 semi-finals means the side that international pundits initially dismissed as "a lesser team" are now tournament favourites, New Zealand media said Wednesday.

The New Zealanders seized their place in the final four with a 22-run win over Pakistan in Mohali on Tuesday, adding to a string of scalps that already includes India and Australia.

All three results would have been considered upsets at the start of the tournament, but NZ Herald cricket writer Andrew Alderson said the Black Caps were on track for their biggest-ever achievement on the world stage.

“New Zealand’s three convincing victories mean they now loom as a favourite to take out their maiden World Cup or World T20 title,” he wrote.

More Twenty20

Latest news, fixtures and more

New Zealand-Pakistan in photos

Former England captain Michael Vaughan ruffled Kiwi feathers last week when he criticised India for allowing “lesser teams into the game” during their tournament opener against the Black Caps.

New Zealand fans also noted that Indian television commentators seemed incredulous that the underdogs ground out a 47-run victory over the highly-fancied hosts in Nagpur.

But the win over Pakistan means they will no longer be underestimated, with Fairfax New Zealand’s Duncan Johnstone labelling them “the team to beat at the Twenty20 World Cup”.

“While we marvelled at their bold spin-win over hosts India and delighted in seeing off old foe Australia, the nature of the victory over Pakistan has New Zealand looking like the real deal to win the World T20 title,” he said.

Johnstone pointed to New Zealand’s potent young spin attack and their batting depth, underlined by Martin Guptill’s 80 off 48 balls in Mohali.

He said the most impressive aspect of the win was the way the Black Caps refused to panic as Pakistan made a strong start to their run chase, instead setting about strangling the innings.

“This is a team that looks increasingly good at defending totals as well as setting them,” he wrote.

Radio Sport cricket commentator Bryan Waddle praised skipper Kane Williamson, who is new to the job after replacing Brendon McCullum but has shown a willingness to pick players on form and forged a winning unit.

“They’ve done it in style against some of the best teams in the world... it just highlights where this team is at the moment,” he said.

New Zealand have only reached the semis of the World T20 once before, at the inaugural event in 2007.

They were the form team going into the final of last year’s World Cup before collapsing against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE

Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport

Other workplace saving schemes
  • The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
  • Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
  • National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
  • In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
  • Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
Dubai Bling season three

Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed 

Rating: 1/5

Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions

There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.

1 Going Dark

A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.

2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers

A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.

3. Fake Destinations

Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.

4. Rebranded Barrels

Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.

* Bloomberg

COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAlmouneer%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202017%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dr%20Noha%20Khater%20and%20Rania%20Kadry%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEgypt%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E120%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBootstrapped%2C%20with%20support%20from%20Insead%20and%20Egyptian%20government%2C%20seed%20round%20of%20%3Cbr%3E%243.6%20million%20led%20by%20Global%20Ventures%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
FOOTBALL TEST

Team X 1 Team Y 0

Scorers

Red card

Man of the Match

 

THE SPECS

Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine 

Power: 420kW

Torque: 780Nm

Transmission: 8-speed automatic

Price: From Dh1,350,000

On sale: Available for preorder now

Cryopreservation: A timeline
  1. Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
  2. Ovarian tissue surgically removed
  3. Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
  4. Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
  5. Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months