South Africa will hope to draw on their experiences of playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) when they begin their three-match one-day international (ODI) series against India in Jaipur today.
"A lot of teams are adapting to the conditions in the subcontinent a lot better because of spending more time here," said Jacques Kallis, who will be leading South Africa as Graeme Smith, the regular captain, is ruled out with a finger injury.
"You end up playing with a lot of Indian players during the IPL, so you see how they do things and how their mentality works.
"All of that does help and players all around the world are learning how to adapt better here now."
There have been some impressive individual performances from the Proteas contingent in the first two IPLs, the second of which was held in South Africa, with the likes of Smith, Kallis and JP Duminy among the leading lights of the Twenty20 tournament.
Kallis is hoping the experience will help his team to a series win and dislodge India as the world's second-ranked ODI team behind Australia.
Hashim Amla, South Africa's most successful batsman in the recent drawn Test series, has been retained in the ODI team as a cover for Smith and the Proteas will be further strengthened by the return of Mark Boucher, the wicket- keeper, who missed the second Test with a back injury.
"Boucher is on track with his recovery and we are confident he will play on Sunday," Michael Owen-Smith, the South Africa media manager, said yesterday.
While the Proteas will be missing Smith, India will be hampered by the absence of their two prime bowlers, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.
Zaheer is ruled out of the series through injury, while Harbhajan has been granted leave to attend a family wedding.
Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh are also missing from the squad with injuries and their omission has opened the doors for the likes of Yusuf Pathan, Dinesh Karthik and Praveen Kumar.
Virender Sehwag has replaced teammate Gambhir at the top of the ICC rankings for Test batsmen following his two centuries against South Africa in their recent Test series.
Sehwag, who scored a century in the opening Test in Nagpur, moved up five places to take top spot for the first time after his 165 earlier this week in Kolkata helped India win the final Test.
Amla, who scored a century for South Africa in each of his three Test innings in the two Tests in India, moved up eight places to second spot.
And Dale Steyn, the South Africa fast bowler, retained his place at the top of the Test bowling rankings.
arizvi@thenational.ae
India v South Africa, 1pm, Neo Sports
Company%20Profile
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Godzilla%20x%20Kong%3A%20The%20New%20Empire
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Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
WE%20NO%20LONGER%20PREFER%20MOUNTAINS
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