He was so good for three innings.

He was so good for three innings.

10.08.2019 17:44

It was hard out there when Pakistan started their day. Soon everyone told Pakistan they were doing it wrong. It started with them being too slow.Azhar Ali needs no invitation to put the handbrake on, take away the spark plugs and put his car up on blocks. Fifty minutes after the day started, he started scoring runs. Forget ugly runs, Azhar had decided on no runs. He literally had more balls when he was hit on the head, than he looked like scoring off. There were some who thought he needed to score to survive, he disagreed. Others thought he needed to just rotate strike, wrong again.Younis Khan scored slowly as well, but then when he started to score quicker, he scored the wrong way, he scored ugly. That tends to happen when you use the outside of your bat as the main part. Younis edged past the slips, past the gully, past the leg slip, short of the slips, onto his toes, and even when he tried using the other neglected part of his bat, he flicked it in the air. Australia had decided to try the Misbah plan to him and bowl very wide of off stump, and it might have worked, and they would have got away with it too, if it wasnt for those soft hands.When Azhar or Younis did play a big shot, most the time some pesky Australian fielder would pull of an athletic dive and stop it. But finally Younis got one through, a slashing aerial catchable shot through point that raced to the rope, which had the Gabba attendant shouting into his radio, Weve got a boundary to fix for the first time in two days.Just as this grim partnership had managed to soften the ball - they were just about to capitalise on their work - it rained. When they came back out, they had to start again. Younis did with a violent forehand smash, but Azhar fell to a short ball down the leg side.Misbah-ul-Haq came out, it rained again, he came out again, and then resumed the turgid trudge of Pakistan. While Younis runs were starting to look prettier, and more Younis-like, Misbah was prodding and poking for 34 balls before he went out. When you lose Misbahs wicket in general, often all hope is lost. When you are more than 300 runs behind, and Misbahs wicket is lost, hope isnt lost: its decayed corpse has been found floating in the river of despair.Then Younis, not batting slow nor batting ugly, was in the dark hour, with the new ball around the corner and his leader gone. He was soon out trying to reverse sweep. People screamed so loud at their TV sets that Younis could practically hear them. Ridiculous, stupid, terrible.The other two reverse sweeps he tried earlier were all right, because he didnt get out then. The many times in his career when he has used the reverse sweep as a tactic to stop the bowler using a particular line, or length, or fielding strategy, they were fine too. The times he has used it as a valid scoring shot in his career, as a shot to show that he cant be tied down, a shot to make sure that the bowler is not in charge, a shot that he has probably played a thousand times - actually, knowing how old he is, maybe a million times - they were all fine. But this one was bad.At first, it was his golden duck that annoyed people. Then it was the pace of this innings that annoyed people. Then it was the style of the innings that annoyed people. And finally, it was the dismissal that annoyed people. Younis Khan, horribly out of form, older than Neil Harvey, struggling to see the pink ball, bats through two rain breaks, survives a tough section, makes 65, and is out trying to be proactive and dictate to Australia, and he annoys people.And if all Azhar and Younis did was play themselves into a bit of form, that would have been pretty good with two Tests to play. But they did something else; their ugly, slow runs made Australia tired. By the time Younis was being abused for his reverse sweep, Azhar and him had taken 74.3 overs out of the innings. Australia had rain breaks, and hadnt even bowled all those overs today, but they werent as sharp as in the first innings.And so, when Sarfraz came in, his slaps and slogs took a bit off the new ball as well. And so, when Pakistans now customary, hot-hand rotation of the No. 8 position - to whomever has made runs the innings before - meant an in-form and confident Mohammad Amir came in, Australia were just a little tired, frustrated, and wanting to get the whole thing over with.Amir frustrated them some more, but it was Asad Shafiq who defied them. Shafiq was quite slow to get going; it took him 12 balls to get off the mark. He got some ugly runs, an edge that went through fourth slip being a highlight. And he played some attacking shots to Nathan Lyon - one went straight over the head of mid-on. In fact, he took risks all the time; he went up and over point so often that Australia must have thought about a catching deep point. He hooked one for six, not far from fine leg. He drove a massive swinging length ball and was dropped at short cover. And then again at slip, and that too playing a bit of a loose shot when they had just lost the wicket of Amir.Shafiq kept going with his luck. He threw entire kitchen units at balls outside off stump. He swept Nathan Lyon from outside off stump regularly. He took on the short ball. He slashed one for his hundred. That hundred was off 140 balls, despite the fact he came in when Misbah had killed hope, when Younis had thrown the match away, and with his side needing over 300 runs for a victory and some biblical rain intervention for a draw.He took his time, then he was ugly, then he was attacking and then he was magnificent. His innings made you believe in Wahab Riaz with the bat. It made you believe that Pakistan, without a hundred from Misbah, in a day-night Test at the Gabba, despite Younis not making a big-daddy score, and with no adequate warm-up game, could actually chase 490.You want to know why Pakistan got to No. 1 in the world? Its because despite their flaws - and hell yes, they have flaws - despite their mistakes - and hell yes, they make mistakes - and despite their entire archaic cricket system - and hell yes, their system is unprofessional in many ways - they fight, they are patient and they have talent.Despite the glory of the never-ending session, this probably wont be a victory, but it was a triumph of Pakistan over common cricket logic, which is what they have been doing for quite a few years. This was the modern Misbah side in all its ugly, slow, shambolic and beautiful glory.They did it the hard way, because thats their way. Air Max Black Friday 2019 . Jeff Green scored 13 points and Kris Humphries 12 for the Celtics, who nearly blew an 18-point, second-half lead. Sullingers 20-20 was the first by a Celtics player since Kevin Garnetts first game in Boston in 2007. Garnett was dealt -- along with Paul Pierce -- to Brooklyn during the off-season. Clearance Air Max Black Friday . Now, correct me if Im wrong but I saw one official distinctly pointing at the net indicating a good goal but after an inconclusive review they overturned the goal. Shouldnt the ruling on the ice (good goal) stand after an inconclusive review? Why was this overturned? James Veaudry Pembroke, ON -- Hey Kerry, Youll get a lot of these, but why was the Montreal goal against Nashville Saturday night overturned? Eller puts the puck on net and the on ice ruling from the ref behind the net is a Montreal goal. http://www.blackfridayairmax.com/ . Jeff Green scored 13 points and Kris Humphries 12 for the Celtics, who nearly blew an 18-point, second-half lead. Sullingers 20-20 was the first by a Celtics player since Kevin Garnetts first game in Boston in 2007. Garnett was dealt -- along with Paul Pierce -- to Brooklyn during the off-season. Cheap Air Max Black Friday . Now, correct me if Im wrong but I saw one official distinctly pointing at the net indicating a good goal but after an inconclusive review they overturned the goal. Shouldnt the ruling on the ice (good goal) stand after an inconclusive review? Why was this overturned? James Veaudry Pembroke, ON -- Hey Kerry, Youll get a lot of these, but why was the Montreal goal against Nashville Saturday night overturned? Eller puts the puck on net and the on ice ruling from the ref behind the net is a Montreal goal. Wholesale Air Max Black Friday . -- Arizona raced out to a big lead and did not back off, hitting the accelerator instead. PHOENIX -- Ryan Schimpf toiled in the minors for seven years waiting for a chance to have a night like this.The 28-year-old rookie homered twice and the San Diego Padres beat Arizona 13-6 on Wednesday night to take two of three from the Diamondbacks.Schimpf has four major league home runs, three in the past two nights.Ive been working and preparing for this moment all the years I spent in the minor leagues, he said, just practicing and playing like I would be here at some point. Thats just kind of how Ive always played. Im definitely happy to be here and grateful for the opportunity.Schimpf was called up from Triple-A El Paso on June 14 to help an injury depleted infield. He was hitting .196 entering Wednesday nights game but manager Andy Green knew the 5-foot-9, 180-pounder could do better.Hes hit 20-plus (home runs) every year the last four years, Green said. It might not look like it in the package but hes got a lot of power.Yangervis Solarte drove in five runs, three on a homer, Wil Myers had three hits and drove in a run and Matt Kemp had a two-run single for the Padres, who scored 13 consecutive runs after Arizona took a 4-0 lead.Schimpf had a two-run shot off Shelby Miller in the Padres five-run fourth inning and a solo home run off Josh Collmenter in the ninth for his first career two-homer game.Miller (2-9) threw three scoreless innings, on one hit, before falling apart in the fourth. Miller, 0-7 at home, allowed six runs in five innings.It was almost like they got something on him, Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale said. It was five runs on 12 pitches. It was quick and they did a good job of getting on the early pitches. It was a tough one to watch. He was so good for three innings. it was like `Is this guy going to throw a nine-inning shutout tonight? then boom.Jose Dominguez (1-0) pitched 1 1/3 innings in relief of starter Colin Rea to get the win. The bases were loaded with two outs and the Padres up by one when Dominguez entered the game and struck out pinch-hitter Rickie Weeks Jr.dddddddddddd with a 99 mph fastball.Green called that the biggest moment of the game.Solarte fell a triple shy of the cycle. His three-run homer came off Collmenter in the ninth. Solarte had a run-scoring single in the fourth and an RBI double in the fifth.Brandon Drury and Jake Lamb homered for the Diamondbacks, who finished a 2-7 homestand.Arizona fell to 15-32 at home and is in a virtual tie with San Diego for last place in the NL West.Through three innings, Miller threw just 34 pitches.But the wheels came off in the fourth. The Padres had four straight singles to start the inning and an RBI groundout before Schimpf sent Millers 2-0 pitch into the seats in left field.PADRES MOVESan Diego claimed RHP Jake Smith off waivers from the San Francisco Giants and assigned him to Double-A San Antonio.TRAINERS ROOMDiamondbacks: 2B Jean Segura left the game with a bruised left triceps after being hit by a pitch in the second inning. X-rays were negative. ... Hale said RHP Zack Greinke has thrown lightly with trainers in the training room. Hale said Greinke (strained left oblique) will get on the field when the team goes to San Francisco this week and just play catch and see how it feels.UP NEXTPadres: RHP Drew Pomeranz (7-7, 2.65 ERA) gets the start Thursday night when the Padres open a three-game series against the Dodgers in Los Angeles. RHP Hyun-Jin Ru will come off the DL to make his season debut for the Dodgers.Diamondbacks: Arizona has Thursday off. LHP Patrick Corbin (4-6, 4.90) starts Friday night in the opener of a three-game series in San Francisco. RHP Jeff Samardzija (8-5, 3.97) goes for the Giants. ' ' '


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