Five talking points in the Twenty20 series between hosts India and South Africa which the tourists won 2-0 after the final match was washed out:
South Africa gain from IPL experience
– Very evident in South Africa's series win was how easily they adjusted to Indian conditions. Not surprising really since as many as 10 players in South Africa's squad are signed up for the glitzy T20 Indian Premier League. It helped that skipper Faf du Plessis, who turns out for his Indian counterpart MS Dhoni's IPL side Chennai Super Kings, had better luck with the toss that left India to field second in slippery dew conditions both times.
World Twenty20 fears rise for India
– If the series loss is an indication, India have much to do if they are to prove competitive in the World Twenty20 to be held in the country in March and April. Dhoni’s men may have won the inaugural World T20 in South Africa in 2007 and reached the final of the last edition in Bangladesh in 2014, but the Proteas appear to be in better shape at the moment to win their first major title.
Will Dhoni lead India at the World Twenty20?
– The noose is tightening around Dhoni, a limited-overs great who has led India to title triumphs in the World Cup, World Twenty20 and the Champions Trophy. With young Test captain Virat Kohli waiting in the wings, critics are already calling for a change at the top, saying Dhoni is past his sell-by date. Having already retired from Test cricket, 34-year-old Dhoni needs to win the five-match one-day series that starts on Sunday to quiet his doubters.
South Africa’s pace scores over India’s spin
– The battlefield is clearly defined. South Africa bank on their fast bowlers to deliver, while India rely on their slow bowlers, notably off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. Pace has clearly dominated the first leg of the long tour. Further bad news awaits India as the tourists will be reinforced by pace spearheads Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, who were rested for the T20 games. It leaves coach Russell Domingo with an embarrassment of riches to choose from for the one-dayers. India, meanwhile, are still to find an effective comrade-in-arm for Ashwin.
Slushy Garden of Eden
– The drainage system at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata is so poor that a sharp 30-minute shower five hours before the scheduled start washed out the third and final T20 game on Thursday. This should worry the International Cricket Council and the Indian board, since the iconic venue is due to host the final of the World Twenty20 next April, a month that usually brings bad weather to the eastern metropolis. Fortunately, there are no WorldT20 games scheduled in Cuttack which witnessed crowd trouble during the second match.
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How to improve Arabic reading in early years
One 45-minute class per week in Standard Arabic is not sufficient
The goal should be for grade 1 and 2 students to become fluent readers
Subjects like technology, social studies, science can be taught in later grades
Grade 1 curricula should include oral instruction in Standard Arabic
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
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