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AP - Lance Armstrong is used to winning, but his most recent victory was unlike any he had experienced before. |
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AP - MVP quarterbacks on marquee franchises. A rematch of a nail-biter from four years ago, featuring many of the same key characters. Madonna and plenty of Manning — Eli, and Peyton, too. |
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AP - Lindsey Vonn captured her 50th World Cup victory by winning the downhill on the demanding Kandahar course in frigid conditions Saturday. |
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AP - In a great day for Canadian skiing, Jan Hudec won a World Cup downhill for a surprising victory while teammate Erik Guay finished third in piercing cold over an icy slope. |
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AP - Josh Hamilton shed no tears and used no prepared statement as he apologized and shared few details about his relapse with alcohol. Still, it was clear he was upset by what he had done. |
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Reuters - A British woman stalked and harassed New York Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman, convincing him to pay her $6,000 after what her lawyers called an inappropriate relationship, prosecutors and others familiar with the case said on Friday. |
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England have a slender five-run lead after both teams collapsed during the first day in the third TestGood morning everyone. Look! For the first time in this series I've shown up in good time and order for the start of a day's play. England fans will have to hope this is an omen. The only trouble is that it is so mind-numblingly nostril-achingly cold out there that I've arrived with my brain in a state of suspended animation.If you're still in bed I can only say: 'lucky you', My advice? Do everything you can to stay exactly there. Any course of action that results in you having to get up from underneath that duvet today is, frankly, inhumane. Start thinking of get-out-of-work plan, quicksharp. Your boss will understand, and if he or she doesn't, tell them I gave you permission. If there's anyone out there reading this in some place colder than London, do let us know. We always like to hear from our readers, and nothing warms the cockles like a little schadenfreude.The news from the toss is that Pakistan have won it, and chosen to bat first. Misbah says they have made one hokey-cokey sort of team change, with Aizaz Cheema coming back into the team instead of Junaid Khan, a direct reversal of the switch they made in the last Test. Strauss confirms that he too would have liked to have a bat and... drum roll please...The big news is that there is no news. England have gone with the very same team that failed so dismally in the last match. "Consistency of selection is one of our philosophies," Strauss explains to Nasser, "if someone is going to get left out something really bad would have to happen," [I may have paraphrased that, but you get the gist, and anyway did he not see what happened in the last Test?] "and I still think we have six really good batsmen in the dressing room."Both captains seem to think that the pitch is going to be a little easier to bat on that it was in the first Test, though old Iron Bottom says that he reckons it is a little drier than it was this time a fortnight ago.Pakistan look like this then: Mohammad Hafeez, Taufeeq Umar, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq, Adnan Akmal, Abdur Rehman, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Aizaz Cheema.And England look like this: Strauss, Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Morgan, Prior, Broad, Swann, Anderson, Panesar.Like I said, my brain is in suspended animation, though I'm currently trying to spark it into life with a cup of the vending machine's finest coffee-flavoured hot beverage. |
That must be why I am so completely baffled by this loosener from Gary Naylor: "I've spent a delightful night on the big white telephone calling Hughie and Ralph. Had I known that was coming, I'd have got drunk first to make it worth while. So it's a highly suspicious looking day off work for me that'll be spent mostly asleep, rather than watching Pakistan make 226-5." The "big white telephone to Hughie and Ralph"? What kind of euphemism is that? It's certainly not one I've ever heard Smyth deployed before.Nasser is currently bowling a fierce little over to KP about his inability to play spin. He insists that his problem against left-arm-spin has been "made up by the media", and reels off a list of unconvincing statistics to prove his point (I've faced more balls from him (Rehman) than any other bowler in this series, and I am averaging 37 against him, so I am really not fussed." More interestingly, he goes on to point out how the DRS system has hindered his ability to play off the front-foot, which explains why he is no longer able to play spinners as he once did, back in the days when he used to cart Shane Warne down the ground for four and reverse-sweep Murali for six."I'm currently following from the big city of Brunswick, Maine," says Zohran Kwame Mamdani. "It's absolutely freezing here, and by my fahrenheit calculations, something like eight degrees colder than London, is that enough? I should be up and refreshing the page for the next few hours, or whenever my college newspaper's production finishes up, so crossing my fingers for a great Pakistan start. All that's missing is some BOOM BOOM."It's a good start, Zohran, and gives me some succour as I sit here shivering, but I wonder if anyone else can beat eight-degrees below London? Amen to the lack of Boom Boom though, even if his approach couldn't be more at odds with that of this particular Pakistan team. He will, I believe, be turning up for the ODIs. I'm looking forward to it already.Here come the batsmen, strutting and stretching, ducking, bobbing and weaving as they walk to the wicket. It looks as though Jimmy Anderson will, as usual, take the first over.1st over: Pakistan 1-0 (Mohammad Hafeez 1, Taufeeq Umar 0) A truly desultory rendition of Jerusalem rings out around the ground. It is, honestly, the single worst piece of singing I've heard in a long, long while. How excruciating. You'd struggle to script a sharper piece of satire on the state of the country than that snippet of song. Why is it that Engli... |
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Pakistan are in charge of the third Test and England are facing a whitewash after Younus Khan scored a brilliant centuryGood morning, good morning. Seconds out, round 25, and this fight is as fascinating now as it was way back on January 17 when the series started. England, we can assume, are going to come out swinging. They have five wickets in hand, but only three batsmen among them. As Jimmy Anderson has just said "hopefully Straussy and I will set a platform and then Broady and Swanny will come out and be at their destructive best." This, ladies and gents, is going to entertaining to watch.And that, it seems is all the preamble we are going to have time for, because here come the players.44th over: England 106-6 (Strauss 41, Anderson 3) Rehman will bowl the first delivery of the day, to Jimmy Anderson. He promised earlier this week that today's IPL auction "would not be a distraction for the team". Little did he know how right he was - Jimmy attracted no bids, and has not been bought. He has though been bowled...WICKET! Anderson 4 b Rehman (England 106-7) Well, I guess you good say he did his job in that he got through the night, but so far as night watches go, Anderson's effort here was no Rembrandt. He rashly decided to drive against the spin, but the ball landed in the footmarks and span back through the gate into the stumps.45th over: England 109-7 (Strauss 43, Broad 2) This is the key partnership of the morning. Ajmal is on now, bowling around the wicket to Broadm and Strauss immediately gives him the strike by taking a single off the first ball. Broad paddle-sweeps two runs away fine, surviving an optimistic LBW appeal as he does so.46th over: England 110-7 (Strauss 44, Broad 2) "My american cricket-loving girlfriend who will be keeping YOU company while I go to bed in a few overs, has just asked me: "is this how it feels to be an England fan, cherishing every run without a wi... oh - damn, Jimmy'." You're leaving me alone with your cricket-loving girlfriend, Simon Bereton? Oh, mercy. It's a good thing you've got the married OBO writer doing the first shift, rather than the single (and devastatingly seductive) Mr Robert Smyth. Hack-hack-hack, ahem. Excuse me, I've something tickling the back of my throat. Just a single from Rehman's second over.47th over: England 112-7 (Strauss 44, Broad 3) The score is on Nelson, and the old curse almost strikes as Broad is forced to dive full-length into the crease, bat stretched out in front of him, to beat a throw from the outfield and complete |
a quick single.48th over: England 114-7 (Strauss 46, Broad 4) "I've got a Mexican, cricket-hating wife," says James Gordon. "You're safe with her Andy. Not a cat in hell's chance." Somehow this riff seems to be stumbling blindly into territory I have no desire to go near. I'm not sure the world is ready for an OBO Readers' Spouses special just yet, hard as times are at the grauniad. Here's Gary Naylor, steering us in an altogether more wholesome direction: Waqar seems as classy with mic in hand as he was with ball in hand. "I"m still ill though, so I could be hallucinating all this."49th over: England 116-7 (Strauss 46, Broad 4) England's lead grows a little more, up to 17, as Strauss cuts two runs to deep point. Here's Ian Forth, who I can't help but notice seems to be emailing from his wife's account, with a Smyth-esque piece of statgazzary: "Had a quick fossick through statsguru today. A side batting first and scoring less than 100 has only gone on to win in 4 test matches. The last time it happened was 1907. So there really is almost nothing whatsoever to worry about." A quick fossick? What a delightful turn of phrase. As for your conclusions, well, I'm sure Disraeli would have something to say about lies, damned lies, and emails from optimistic OBO readers.50th over: England 121-7 (Strauss 53, Broad 4) Four! And, more important still, fifty! Well played Andrew Strauss. It has taken all of 141 balls, ands has been quite the ugliest half-ton he has scored in Test cricket, if also one of the most useful. It is only his second fifty in his last 15 Test innings, a run stretching back over 12 months.REFERRAL! Broad 4 LBW Ajmal Pakistan have one review left, and they have decided to spend it on this LBW appeal. The on-field decision was not out.WICKET! Broad 4 LBW Ajmal (England 121-8) Oh dear, England. Broad has to go, though he's not all that happy about it. The delivery that did for him was a doosra, and despite what most people who saw it seemed to think when they saw the size of the stride he took down the pitch, Hawkeye shows it hit him in line, and would have gone on to hit the middle of middle stump.52nd over: England 122-8 (Strauss 53, Swann 0) Swann has come out to bat in a baseball cap. His choice of headgear is, I'd guess, a portent of how he intends to play. Mike Selvey is gobsmacked by that decision against Broad. "How can that be out? It's hit him outside the line. And I would hazard beyond the 2.5 m mark t... |
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