2012 » rs: Yu Darvish (2-2, 3.12) is winless in his two starts sinc

Twenty-two maidens on the trot. One scoring shot in 176 balls. And no, the match didnt take place during the fearful 1950s or the soporific 1960s but in Pallekele less than a fortnight ago.Then there was Roston Chase at Sabina Park the following week, capping five wickets in an innings in his second Test with a match-saving century against India that coaxed beams aplenty from King Vivi himself. And then there was that thrilling climax at Edgbaston.As for what links these geographically and contextually disparate feats, need we say any more? Put it this way: had the Saatchi brothers been commissioned to produce an advert promoting the merits of the five-act play, they couldnt have done any better.Lets rewind 50 years, to Garry Sobers summer of summers. Record crowds thronged to Lords and Trent Bridge; come the end of Englands four-day dead-rubber stroll at The Oval, aggregate turnstile clicks had swollen to more than 400,000. This, though, was profoundly untypical of the times. The year before and the year after, interest in the dozen Tests against New Zealand, South Africa, India and Pakistan was such that the only attendances deemed fit for public consumption in Wisden were for the two Lords Tests of 1965.In keeping with its status as guardian and defender of the games principles, the yellow brick road led the prosecution. Englands Ashes tour of 1962-63 and the Indian venture of 1963-64 were summed up, respectively, as grim and drab. In 1965, editor Norman Preston fulminated against 1964s commonplace [and] flat home Ashes series, one that placed far too much emphasis on the determination not to lose. True, noted Preston, the buoyant West Indians of 1963 did not, for the most part, score any faster, but they certainly conveyed the impression of enjoying themselves. The solution was radical: Why not try shorter Tests?Nor did the call for brighter cricket let up. In the 1967 Wisden, the Editors Notes were headlined English cricket at the crossroads. The paucity of turnstile action was blamed on pretty much everything: poor pitches, low standards, lack of personalities, an absence of vigour and variety. Hell, even an enterprising if ludicrous proposal for a one-day County Championship (the first limited-overs tournament had sputtered into life in 1963) was seriously discussed.The most significant omen, nevertheless, could be found in the bottom line: despite the Great Garfield, despite Wes and Charlie and Lance and Rohan and Basil and Conrad and Seymour, despite those historic crowds, profits for that 1966 tour were barely half what they had been for the previous West Indies visit.Fast-forward half a century and what do we find? A world where tours are more accurately described as long weekends and profits are about as newsworthy as an AB de Villiers play-and-miss; a world where bums on seats are often in inverse proportion to the drama and quality of the cricket - and about as relevant as broadcasting fees were in 1966.And so to the latest wheeze - a Test championship, formally proposed by ICC chief executive Dave Richardson and supported by Anil Kumble and his star-studded ICC Cricket Committee. If it wasnt quite the centurys most promising fillip for the planets most anachronistic and scorned exposition of excellence, that was only because the news broke during a remarkable week that also saw MCC announce that, however belatedly, it was considering regulating the depth of bats and the thickness of their edges.Those determined to find fault with the attendant plans for promotion and relegation have been predicting an end to West Indies tours of England, but if what Sobers successors do best in the remaining four-fifths of the century is hit sixes to extraordinary parts, uproot multiple stumps and catch the uncatchable, does it really matter what format they excel in? Caribbean youngsters emboldened by non-cricketing achievers such as Usain Bolt and Trinidads footballers are now more likely than ever to be inspired by joy, self-expression, immediacy and dynamism than patience, stoicism and cussedness - as Junes ODI defeats of South Africa and Australia reaffirmed. As he lounged on his cloud, the late Tony Cozier, whose final years were dominated by despair, would surely have beamed with approval.Since crickets not-so swinging sixties, of course, spectator sport has been radically transformed by technology and money, going from being a cheap, reliable schedule-filler to the very foundation stone of the planets media empires. Its reach has increased an unimaginable number of folds, bringing the very best of the competitive arts to poor villages, far-flung towns and war-ravaged nations, while reducing the actual eyewitnesses to walk-on roles. Indeed, the very notion of spectating has been redefined. And once those clever virtual-reality people get their act together, food and booze proceeds will doubtless go the way of the tour profit.All in all, then, things could be a great deal worse for the Test match, whose 140th birthday next March makes the old boy the longest-running popular show in the annals of intercontinental ball games, not to mention the most historically multiracial (hard as it is to countenance these days, the British Empire did have the odd redeeming feature), yet simultaneously the most profoundly un-21st century. That it survives at all is a minor miracle.Let us return, then, to the latest proposed remedies. Understandably Bangladesh have raised objections to a two-division Test circuit, likewise Sri Lanka, even though the quality of the new generation of batsmen and spinners led by Kusal Mendis and Lakshan Sandakan suggests that fears of relegation will prove short-lived. Joining the naysayers is the BCCI, on the basis, as new president Anurag Thakur explained, politicians hat firmly in place, that the smaller countries will lose out and the BCCI wants to take care of them. Just as it wants, presumably, to take care of business by changing tack and inviting Bangladesh for regular tours. There are worse ways, one supposes, to ensure the minnows continue to vote with India. As for the baggy greens, David Peever, the Cricket Australia chairman, has thrown his not inconsiderable weight behind two of the cornerstone proposals for revitalisation, the two-tiered structure and day-night contests, yet not, significantly, the notion of four-day Tests. This column is inclined to nod its support with considerable zest.Switching to 100 overs per day and 400 per match is by no means a preposterous idea. Even for those of us to whom dilatory rates are only irksome when the fielding team is striving to halt a fourth-innings chase, the subtraction of 50 overs need not necessarily be detrimental. Besides, however natural it is to feel irate at being short-changed - and the 120 balls delivered by England in two hours at Edgbaston certainly pushed even us tolerant apologists to breaking point - perhaps too much is made of them in the age of the DRS.By the same token, however, the elements tease, taunt and torment cricket like no other sport, and unless we actually crave a revival in the number of stalemates, to voluntarily shed a day - particularly when so many Tests are now played during the northern hemispheres wettest months - sounds a lot like a suicide note.Which brings us back to those mesmerising passages in Pallekele and Kingston: in neither case - thanks to rain - would the concluding events have occurred had either contest been confined to four days. Come to think of it, all of the most gripping encounters in the annals of Test cricket - Sydney 1894, Brisbane 1960, Headingley 1981, Madras 1986, and Kolkata 2001, each of which resulted in a tie or else victory after following on - have required at least five days. By way of ramming the point home, all bar the Leeds affair required the equivalent of more than 400 six-ball overs.For further evidence, consider this: of the 60 Tests that have begun since the start of 2015 (up to but not including this weeks Zimbabwe-New Zealand affair), 32 have gone into the fifth day. Of the remaining 28, five have involved the three lightweights, West Indies, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.Here in Limeyland, needless to add, climatic considerations are always uppermost. There is, nonetheless, a faint hint of irony that, while there had never been any need for timeless affairs, this was the last nation to formally extend Tests from four days to five - a reflection of the havoc wrought on uncovered pitches by unseasonal weather. The first season of five-dayers, furthermore, was in 1948 - somewhat surprising given that the previous summers series against South Africa had produced three decisive results in four days or fewer. That a couple of cracking matches saw time run out doubtless motivated the change.In the event, three of 1948s five Ashes Tests spanned five days, and although there was a patronising reversion to three for New Zealands visit the following year - Walter Hadlees tourists duly repaid such arrogance by drawing all four Tests - five became the norm when West Indies calypsoed into town in 1950 and took the four-set rubber 3-1.Small wonder, all in all, that a poll published in the latest issue of the Cricketer found 87% of readers voting against the 20% reduction. The stats may not lie about the rise in scoring rates or the prevalence of early finishes, but why take the risk?Despite shortening attention spans and alternative attractions, as Mike Brearley reasoned in the Times, classical music thrives and grows, books are still printed. And the Test match still captivates. Bring on the day-nighters, a formal championship and even two divisions by all means, but do us all a favour and leave the five-act play intact.Wholesale Soccer Jerseys . Boucher previously coached the Tampa Bay Lightning and had a 97-78-20 record over two-plus seasons. He was dismissed by the team last March after the Lightning struggled in the lockout-shortened season with a 13-18-1 record. Cheap Jerseys Online . -- Ryan Getzlaf grabbed the three pucks wrapped in tape and held them up to his chest in the Anaheim Ducks dressing room for a celebration nine seasons in the making. http://www.jerseyswholesaleusa.com/ . Kyle Denbrook, a soccer player from Saint Marys University, took the CIS male athlete of the week honour. Stanley, a fourth-year business administration student from Charlottetown, scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Dalhousie on Friday and tallied again in a 1-0 win over Saint Marys on Sunday. Wholesale NFL Shop . -- The Missouri Tigers might not have a roster full of superstars. NFL Jerseys Authentic . Peter Gammons, an analyst for Major League Baseballs network and website, drew the ire of hockey fans on Sunday when he criticized the two NHL teams on Twitter for their physical game the night before.ARLINGTON, Texas -- When Bob Melvin went to the mound in the fifth inning, he wasnt going to take Sonny Gray out of the game. The Oakland Athletics manager had a reminder with a pep talk.Youve got to remind him who Sonny Gray is, Melvin said. Sonny Gray is one of the best pitchers in the American League.Gray, an All-Star last season but with a 5.49 ERA before Tuesday night, overcame that one volatile inning and had a season-high eight strikeouts as the As beat the AL West-leading Texas Rangers 6-3.The only hits Gray (5-9) allowed came to five consecutive batters to start the Rangers fifth, including deep opposite-field homers by Joey Gallo and Mitch Moreland. Gray had retired 12 of the first 13 batters before that and struck out the last two batters he faced to finish the sixth.The first four innings and even the sixth inning, thats the pitcher that I want to be and the pitcher that Ive been my whole career, not only in the big leagues, but my whole life, Gray said. I dont know what its been this year. I cant explain just the one inning.Josh Reddick drove in three runs for the As, who won for the fourth time in five games. Reddicks two-run homer in the fourth was one of three homers by the As. Coco Crisp and Marcus Semien also went deep.Gray, who has won all six of his career starts at Texas, struck out all three batters in the first and had five Ks through two innings.In the third, he had a nifty defensive play, bouncing off the mound toward the third-base line to field a high chopper. He made a backhanded catch and then an off-balance throw falling toward the line to get Robinson Chirinos out at first.He pitched great, and he got through a tough spot, which he wasnt able to do against them the one time at home, Melvin said. Hes working through some things in a difficult year for him, and he got through it tonight. He got us through six innings, and he pitched great.Crisp led off the fourth with his eighth homer of the season, and Reddick homered after Jed Lowries single. Semiens 21st homer started the fifth off Nick Martinez (1-3) before Reddick added a run-scoring single for a 5-0 lead.The no-hit bid for Gray ended when Rougned Odor singled on the first pitch of the fifth, thoughh he was easily thrown out trying to stretch a routine single to right into a double.dddddddddddd.Gallo then homered, a 448-foot opposite-field blast over the As bullpen in left-center. Ryan Rua singled before Moreland also went the opposite way over that bullpen, a 423-foot homer.Martinez gave up five runs and six hits while pitching into the fifth after being recalled to start in place of Kyle Lohse, the 37-year-old right-hander designated for assignment with a 12.54 ERA after losing both of his Texas starts.Three solid innings, two challenging innings, manager Jeff Banister said. We liked what we saw the first three innings.BIG PROSPECTWith Prince Fielder expected to have season-ending neck surgery, the Rangers recalled Gallo to give them a left-hander with potential power. Gallo hit six homers in 36 games last season in his MLB debut, but had just one at-bat this year for the Rangers before Tuesday night.SHORT HOPSThe start of the game was delayed 62 minutes because of rain. ... Gray has allowed 17 homers, matching his career high set last season. The right-hander had been 1-8 with a 6.45 ERA his previous 14 starts. ... Oakland C Stephen Vogt returned after missing three games while on family medical leave.TRAINERS ROOMAthletics: LHP Rich Hill, who hasnt started since July 17 because of a persistent blister, hopes to return Sunday. He threw a bullpen session with tape over the blister Tuesday after playing catch with it uncovered.Rangers: SS Elvis Andrus was out of the lineup for the second time in a nine-day stretch that also included an off day for the team. Banister said Andrus was a little banged up but would play Wednesday.UP NEXTAthletics: Lefty Sean Manaea (3-5, 4.61 ERA) has allowed only two runs in 20 innings his last three starts -- and the As have scored only once while he was pitching in that span.Rangers: Yu Darvish (2-2, 3.12) is winless in his two starts since returning from the disabled list, but the Rangers have scored only two runs total for him in those games. The right-hander struck out 11 in six innings at Kansas City last Friday. ' ' '