LONDON // England's series-opening victory over India at Lord's has presented the home players with what they say could be their most crucial summer for six years.
Monday's convincing 196-run win sets up a real possibility that England could get the two-match winning margin it needs to unseat India at the top of the Test rankings, an achievement that man-of-the-match Kevin Pietersen said could be as important as winning the Ashes back from Australia was in 2005.
"Potentially, this is as big," he said after a record fifth-day attendance of 28,500 at Lord's. "You can see that from the number of people who turned up in the morning. As we drove here, the lads were commenting on the number of people outside. For us, as players, it's magnificent that the public think it's such a big series."
England won the Ashes for the first time in 18 years with a 2-1 victory in 2005 and has won three of the past four series against their old foes.
That sort of form has propelled England to third in the Test standings, within striking distance of India. The second Test begins on Friday, giving England the perfect opportunity to keep up momentum.
The short break should certainly help England, rather than injury-hit India.
The England and Wales Cricket Board picked an unchanged squad for the Trent Bridge Test, with the pace bowler Tim Bresnan included alongside the 11 players who excelled at Lord's.
But any changes to the attack are unlikely. James Anderson jumped to second place in the International Cricket Council's bowling rankings after his second-innings five for 65, while Chris Tremlett's four wickets took him up to a career-best ninth. With the spinner Graeme Swann in third place, England currently has three of the top 10 bowlers in world cricket, more than any other side.
"I think over the two innings that was as close to the perfect bowling performance we've had in the last two years," the England captain Andrew Strauss said.
* Associated Press
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
MATCH INFO
Mumbai Indians 186-6 (20 ovs)
Kings XI Punjab 183-5 (20 ovs)
Mumbai Indians won by three runs
Uefa Champions League play-off
First leg: Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Ajax v Dynamo Kiev
Second leg: Tuesday, August 28, 11pm (UAE)
Dynamo Kiev v Ajax
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6.30pm: Longines Conquest Classic Dh150,000 Maiden 1,200m.
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Winner:
ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Ajax v Juventus, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Match on BeIN Sports
UAE%20SQUAD
%3Cp%3E%0D%3Cstrong%3EMen%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Saif%20Al%20Zaabi%2C%20Salem%20Al%20Marzooqi%2C%20Zayed%20Al%20Ansaari%2C%20Saud%20Abdulaziz%20Rahmatalla%2C%20Adel%20Shanbih%2C%20Ahmed%20Khamis%20Al%20Blooshi%2C%20Abdalla%20Al%20Naqbi%2C%20Khaled%20Al%20Hammadi%2C%20Mohammed%20Khamis%20Khalaf%2C%20Mohammad%20Fahad%2C%20Abdulla%20Al%20Arimi.%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWomen%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Mozah%20Al%20Zeyoudi%2C%20Haifa%20Al%20Naqbi%2C%20Ayesha%20Al%20Mutaiwei.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Brief scores:
Toss: Rajputs, elected to field first
Sindhis 94-6 (10 ov)
Watson 42; Munaf 3-20
Rajputs 96-0 (4 ov)
Shahzad 74 not out
What is a Ponzi scheme?
A fraudulent investment operation where the scammer provides fake reports and generates returns for old investors through money paid by new investors, rather than through ligitimate business activities.
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
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