Proteas defeats Australia in the last league game of World Cup; Aussies to face England in semis
India to play New Zealand on Tuesday in first semi final
Manchester: David Warner's brilliant century went in vain as a Faf du Plessis-inspired South Africa beat defending champions Australia by 10 runs to pull the curtains on their disappointing World Cup campaign on a high here.
Australia needed to win to top the standings after India's clinical victory over Sri Lanka earlier on Saturday, but the defending champions fell short despite Warner registering his third ton of the tournament (122 off 117 balls) and wicket-keeper Alex Carey's 85 off 69.
Already eliminated, South Africa were inspired by Du Plessis' fluent 100 of 94 balls and Rassie van der Dussen's career-best 95 to post a challenging 325 for six in the last league game of the tournament.
The Proteas came out with purpose and defended the target with Kagiso Rabada (3/56), Dwaine Pretorious (2/27) and Andile Phehlukwayo sharing the honours with the ball, as Australia were bundled out for 315 in 49.5 overs.
Australia finished the league stage in the second spot with 14 points from nine game and will take on hosts England in the second semi-final at Birmingham on Thursday. India will play New Zealand in the first-semifinal here on Tuesday.
Besides Warner and Carey, no other Australian batsmen could make any notable contribution with the bat.
Australia were reduced to 119 for four in 24.1 overs before Warner and Carey stitched 108 runs off just 90 balls for the fifth wicket to keep the title holders in the hunt.
But once the duo departed, Australia's chase fell apart. Earlier, openers Aiden Markram (34) and Quinton de Kock (52) came out with positive intent after South Africa opted to bat.
Du Plessis and Van der Dussen carried forward the good work on a batting friendly pitch with a 151-run stand for the third wicket and in the process, the South African skipper raised his 12th ODI century.
After taking some time, Du Plessis worked the ball around nicely in the middle overs while Van der Dussen shifted gears in the latter stage of the innings.
Van der Dussen raised the team's 300 with a six off Pat Cummins but he holed out to Glenn Maxwell at the deep midwicket boundary while trying to hit a six off the last ball of the innings.
Nevertheless, Van der Dussen helped his team's cause and hit four sixes and as many fours in his entertaining knock. J P Duminy's last ODI innings for South Africa yielded 14 runs.
The Proteas openers timed the ball nicely and raised 79 runs in quick time, not sparing even Mitchell Starc, one of the best in the business.
Markram stroked beautifully on the off-side while De Kock too was a delight to watch.
Markram, when on 32, offered a difficult chance to Jason Behrendorff but the pacer couldn't grab it. However, he did not last long and was stumped off Nathan Lyon. The off-spinner soon sent back De Kock, who miscued one straight to Starc at backward point.
Realising that spinners are getting purchase from the wicket, Glenn Maxwell was employed and he did trouble the South African batsmen. He could have got the wicket of Van der Dussen but Carey missed a regulation stumping chance. He was on 4 at that time.
The run rate took a beating after those wickets but Van der Dussen and Du Plessis gradually shifted gears during their partnership.
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.
Equity markets decline in early trade dragged by services, realty stocks, FII outflows
Mumbai (PTI): Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty declined in early trade on Monday weighed down by losses in services and realty stocks and sustained foreign fund outflows.
The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 316.52 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 85,395.85 in the morning trade. The 50-share NSE Nifty declined by 106.70 points, or 0.41 per cent, to 26,079.75.
From the Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Maruti Suzuki India, Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, ICICI Bank, PowerGrid, Hindustan Unilever and Larsen & Toubro were the laggards.
However, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Eternal, Reliance Industries, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Tata Consultancy Services, Trent, HCL Technologies and Tata Steel were among the gainers.
"Emerging positive and negative news have the potential to keep the market volatile in the near-term. Robust economic growth and indications of earnings growth revival are supportive of markets.
"The massive fiscal and monetary stimulus to the economy this year has contributed to sharp revival in GDP growth as evidenced by the 8.2 per cent Q2 GDP growth print, and RBI's upward revision of FY 26 GDP growth to 7.3 per cent augurs well for the market," VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Ltd, said.
He noted that low GDP deflator, consequent to low inflation, has impacted nominal GDP growth and corporate earnings growth. But from the leading indicators it is clear that about 15 per cent earnings growth is achievable in FY27. This is positive for the market.
"However, there are strong negatives, too, which can impact the market. Sustained depreciation of the rupee has been forcing FIIs to sell in the market continuously," Vijayakumar added.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 438.90 crore on Friday, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought stocks worth Rs 4,189.17 crore, according to exchange data.
In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei 225, Shanghai's SSE Composite index and South Korea's Kospi were trading in the green territory while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was quoting in the red zone.
US markets ended higher on Friday.
"American equities posted modest, broad-based gains last week, supported by softer inflation data and resilient macroeconomic indicators that sustained expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts," Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research, HDFC Securities, said.
He noted that investors positioned cautiously ahead of the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, additional inflation releases, and year-end portfolio adjustments.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.13 per cent, to USD 63.83 per barrel.
On Friday, the 30-share BSE Sensex benchmark advanced 447.05 points to settle at 85,712.37, while the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 152.70 points to close at 26,186.45.
