T20 WC: England beat Bangladesh by eight wickets
Abu Dhabi, Oct 27: England dished out a thoroughly clinical display with both the bat and the ball to steamroll Bangladesh by eight wickets in a Super 12 match of the T20 World Cup here on Wednesday.
Explosive opener Jason Roy anchored the paltry 125-run chase, with a 38-ball 61 (5x4, 3x6) to make his 50th T20I appearance memorable as England cantered home in just 14.1 overs to give their net run rate a huge boost.
Dawid Malan remained unbeaten on 28, while Jonny Bairstow (8 not out) finished off the chase, pulling Shoriful Islam for a boundary.
With two wins in a row, England now lead Group 1 table with four points.
Defending a below-par total, Bangladesh never showed any aggressive intent and their bowlers lacked discipline.
On a two-paced pitch, their pacers, led by Mustafizur Rahman, were guilty of bowling short as the England opening duo of Roy and Jos Buttler (18) never had any trouble, cruising to 37 for no loss in four overs.
Left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed gave the much needed breakthrough by dismissing Buttler but Roy kept up the rampage as England cruised to 90/1 at the halfway mark -- needing just 35 off 60 balls.
Roy was in full control of the innings and reached to his fifty -- his second in T20 World Cup -- off just 33 balls, hammering Nasum Ahmed over the rope.
Shoriful dismissed Roy in the 13th over but by that time the explosive opener had made the equation completely in favour of his side as England needed 11 runs from 43 balls.
Earlier, England bowlers capitalised on a fine start given by off-spinner Moeen Ali to restrict Bangladesh to a paltry 124 for 9.
Opting to bat, Bangladesh were sloppy and failed to apply themselves as they lost wickets at regular intervals.
Moeen took two wickets in two balls inside the powerplay en route to another fine outing (2/18 from 3 overs) with the ball.
Pacer Chris Woakes was also on the job inside the powerplay as he dismissed star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, reducing Bangladesh to 27/3 in first six overs.
On a day leg-spinner Adil Rashid -- fresh from his match winning figures of 4/2 against the West Indies -- returned wicketless and was their most expensive bowler, utility spinner Liam Livingstone did the job in the middle middle overs by taking 2/15.
Pacer Tymal Mills later wreaked havoc at the death with figures of 3/27 as Bangladesh could never recover.
Livingstone, who is capable of bowling both leg and off-spin, grabbed the crucial wickets of Bangladesh top-scorer Mushfiqur Rahim (29) and skipper Mahmudullah (19).
Livingstone trapped Rahim with a successful use of DRS.
It particularly hurt Bangladesh in the middle overs as Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah were looking to rebuild their innings with a 37-run partnership from 32 balls.
But Livingstone had Rahim plumb in front of wicket with his leg spin to break the partnership.
Afif Hossain departed after a comical run out for the addition of 10 runs to leave Bangladesh tottering at 83/6 with five overs to go.
Earlier, Liton Das, who looked ultra aggressive by smashing Moeen for two boundaries, took a top edge in the England off-spinner's second over.
Moeen then grabbed a second with Mohammad Naim falling tamely with a mis-hit to once again take two wickets inside the powerplay.
Woakes claimed the prized scalp of Bangladesh ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan with Adil Rashid taking a brilliant catch running backwards.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
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.
