Australia all out for 125 against England
Dubai, Oct 30: Skipper Aaron Finch scored a composed 49-ball 44 but England pacers produced a superlative performance to bowl out Australia for a modest 125 in their Super 12 Group 1 match of the T20 World Cup here on Saturday.
Opting to bowl, the pace duo of Chris Woakes (2/23) and Chris Jordan (3/17) rattled Australia's top-order by removing opener David Warner (1), Steve Smith (1) and Glenn Maxwell (6) in the first four overs before Finch resurrected the innings.
Ashton Agar (20), Pat Cummins (12) and Mitchell Starc (13) then hit some lusty blows to give some respectability to the Australian total.
The English pacers dished out a splendid display of fast bowling after skipper Eoin Morgan won the toss and elected to bowl.
Woakes was in action early on as he induced a nick from Warner to deal the first blow and then pulled off a sensational catch at mid-on to remove Steve Smith off Jordan's bowling.
Woakes then trapped Maxwell in front of wicket as Australia slumped to 15 for 3 in 4 overs.
Leg-spinner Adil Rashid (1/19), who had opened the bowling for England, then returned to trap Marcus Stoinis LBW with a googly as Australia were tottering at 21 for 4 in 6.1 overs.
Matthew Wade (18) then joined skipper Finch, taking Australia to 41 for four in 10 overs.
Wade, however, perished in the 12th over after holing out at long-on to Jason Roy off Liam Livingstone.
Finch smashed back-to-back boundaries to cream 10 runs off Tymal Mills, before picking up another boundary off Jordan in the next over.
Agar then exploded in the 17th over as he pulled one from Woakes over deep backward square leg before walloping him for another six over deep midwicket to score 20 runs of the over.
He was back to the pavilion after being caught by Livingstone.
Cummins then clobbered the first two balls he faced for maximums to give Australia momentum.
But Jordan returned to remove Finch and Cummins in successive balls.
Brief Scores:
Australia: 125 all out in 20 overs (Aaron Finch 44; Chris Jordan 3/17, Tymal Mills 2/ 45, Chris Woakes 2/23).
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India should create strategic buffers to navigate 'most difficult' energy shock: CEA Nageswaran
New Delhi (PTI): Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Saturday said India needs to create strategic buffers in the face of the "most difficult" energy shock that the country is facing amid the West Asia crisis.
Nageswaran also said the rising prices of fertiliser and petroleum products globally due to the crisis will make it challenging to achieve the 4.3 per cent fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal, while below normal monsoon and pass-through of higher energy prices could lead to "potential inflation spike".
He also said India has employment challenge emanating from AI, and there is a need to ensure that IT sector becomes more competitive and not lose jobs to AI, and instead create jobs that use AI within the IT sector or in other services.
Speaking at the ICPP Growth Conference organised by the Ashoka University, Nageswaran said the current account deficit (CAD) in the current fiscal could rise to over 2 per cent of GDP, from less than 1 per cent in FY'26.
"The ... priority for us is to create strategic buffers. This energy shock is the most difficult one compared to any other previous energy shock in terms of energy lost as a percentage of total global energy supply, not just oil, including gas.
"And we also need to use this occasion to think about other areas where we are vulnerable in terms of import dependence, nickel, tin, and copper. We need to build strategic buffers if we have to make a shot at manufacturing and becoming indispensable," Nageswaran said.
Since the beginning of the war in West Asia on February 28, crude oil prices soared to a four-year high of USD 126 per barrel on Thursday, from about USD 73 level before the war.
Stating that geopolitics will compel policymakers to be nimble and flexible and shed old model of thinking, Nageswaran said India is better prepared than many other countries to deal with the crisis because of the fiscal leeway that the country has due to lowering of fiscal deficit ratio to 4.4 per cent of GDP in FY'26.
Nageswaran said the West Asia conflict is more of a price shock than supply shock for India as the government is managing the supply side deftly.
"This particular conflict, which is going to be on a low simmer or a high flame situation, whatever it is, it is going to be there with us in some form or the other because the military conflict may be over, but the strategic conflict is well and truly alive. It will be so for some time," Nageswaran said.
He said the conflict has four channels of shock: price and supply shock, trade impact, sticky logistics costs and remittance shock.
India imports 60 per cent of its LPG usage and of that, 90 per cent flows through the now closed Strait of Hormuz.
Nageswaran said the pass-through of high global energy prices would have to be a "balancing act". He said some pass-through is already happening in commercial LPG, and the levy of export duty on diesel and ATF.
The government has cut excise duty on petrol and diesel to shield customers from the impact of the rise in petroleum prices. "We are coming around to arriving at a certain modus vivendi with respect to burden-sharing between the fiscal policy side, inflation, households and the oil marketing companies. So it has to be a balancing act," Nageswaran said.
