Miller blitzkrieg powers South Africa to four-wicket win
Sri Lanka's Wanindu Hasaranga Takes Hat-Trick wicket
Sharjah, Oct 30: David Miller's two last-over sixes powered South Africa to a four-wicket victory over Sri Lanka despite a hat-trick by Wanindu Hasaranga in a thrilling Super 12 match of the ICC T20 World Cup here on Saturday.
Miller's 23-run unbeaten cameo off just 13 balls ensured South Africa knock off the required 25 runs in the last two overs, including 15 in the final six deliveries. The Proteas did so with a ball to spare.
In a match where the pendulum swung till the very end, Kasigo Rabada (13 not out off 7 balls) took a single in the first ball of the last over. Then Miller smashed two back-to back sixes off pacer Lahiri Kumura to seal the game in his team's favour.
Rabada completed the chase by hitting the winning runs -- a boundary to the third man fence -- as the Proteas continued their fine run to stay afloat in the tournament.
First left-arm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi (3/17) ran through the Sri Lankan batters as South Africa bundled them out for 142 despite opener Pathum Nissanka's whirlwind 72 and then chased the tricky target.
Thus, the efforts of young leg-spinner Hasaranga (3/20), who scalped two wickets in the 18th over, went in vain.
Skipper Temba Bavuma (46) played his part to perfection as he took the game deep and then Miller justified his finisher's tag.
Chasing 143, South African lost Reeza Hendricks (11), Quinton de Kock (12) and Rassie van der Dussen (16) cheaply.
Bavuma and Aiden Markram (19) took the game deep with their crucial 47-run stand, which played a role in the side's win.
Earlier, left-arm wrist spinner Shamsi spun his web around the Sri Lankan batters as South Africa bowled their opponents out.
On a track that aided spinners, Shamsi rattled the Sri Lankan middle-order to return with fine figures of 3/17 and his scalps included Bhanuka Rajapaksa (0), Avishka Fernando (3) and Hasaranga (4).
The 23-year-old Nissanka was the lone Sri Lankan to shine with the bat, hitting 72 off just 58 balls, with six fours and three sixes.
Put into bat, Kusal Perera (7) and Nissanka, who hit his second T20 fifty, started cautiously. Pacer Kagiso Rabada conceded two boundaries in the second over as the Islanders amassed nine runs.
Pacer Anrich Nortje cleaned up Perera as Sri Lanka lost their first wicket with 20 on the board.
Then in-form Charith Asalanka (21) joined Nissanka and the duo tried to rally the innings with a 41-run stand.
Asalanka struck two successive fours in the sixth over off Nortje, including a straight drive, as Sri Lanka fetched 13 runs from it and cantered to 39/1 after power-play.
After a couple of slow overs, both Asalanka and Nissanka freed their arms, hammering a six each in the 9th over bowled by Keshav Maharaj (0/24).
But South African pegged back the host by scalping four quick wickets. First, Rabada's brilliance in the field meant that Asalanka was run out and, in the next over, Shamsi lobbed a return catch off his own bowling to dismiss Rajapaksa and leave the opposition tottering at 62/3.
Shamsi, in a similar fashion, removed Fernando as they further slipped to 77/4. Shamsi got his third when he dismissed Hasaranga. Skipper Dasun Shanaka's (11) horrid form also continued in the game.
Nissanka, who hit his second T20 half century, continued playing his shots and took on the SA attack with gusto, but South African speedster Dwaine Pretorius (3/17) rattled the lower order.
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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.
