Punjab Kings elect to bowl against RCB in rain-shortened IPL match
Bengaluru, Apr 18 (PTI): Punjab Kings skipper Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bowl against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a rain-shortened Indian Premier League match here on Friday.
PBKS brought in Marcus Stoinis in place of Glenn Maxwell in the 14-over-a-side contest, while Harpreet Brar was also included in the XI.
RCB have decided to go with the same playing XI as in the previous game.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Philip Salt, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar (c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (w), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Yash Dayal.
Punjab Kings: Priyansh Arya, Nehal Wadhera, Shreyas Iyer (c), Shashank Singh, Josh Inglis (w), Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Harpreet Brar, Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal.
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Rupee rises 28 paise to 92.86 against US dollar in early trade
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee jumped 28 paise to 92.86 against the US dollar in early trade on Friday amid hopes of easing geopolitical tensions and positive sentiment in domestic equity markets.
Buying of Indian equities by foreign investors also supported the local currency even though it stayed under pressure due to a firm dollar, forex traders said.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 92.93 and gained further to trade at 92.86 against the greenback in early deals, up 28 paise from the previous closing level.
On Thursday, the rupee strengthened 19 paise to settle at 93.14 against the US dollar.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, rose by 0.05 per cent at 98.07.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 1.16 per cent down at USD 98.24 per barrel in futures trade.
Analysts said that crude oil prices fell below USD 100/barrel amid expectations that the crisis in West Asia would soon come to an end.
In a latest development on the geopolitical front, China, a close ally of Iran and the largest importer of Iranian oil, has asked Tehran to ensure freedom and safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, a key international trade route.
Besides, Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 10-day ceasefire, which could also boost the peace efforts towards ending the devastating war involving the US, Israel and Iran.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share Sensex gained 176.08 points or 0.23 per cent to 78,164.76 in early trade, while the Nifty rose 33.90 points or 0.14 per cent to 24,232.60.
Foreign Institutional Investors turned net buyers on Thursday, as they bought equities worth Rs 382.36 crore, according to exchange data.
