Meister der Farbe » d stood at 170 for 4 at that stage.

A Pakistani player has reportedly accused an English counterpart of doing dirty things to a cricket ball. To some this comes as a surprise and an outrage. To those who know England-Pakistan cricketing relations, a little niggle like this is but a drop in the ocean. Indeed, compared to previous England-Pakistan contests, the summers England-India contest was a love-in. The series was as rancorous as a dispute in an all-boys boarding school; tiffs over Vaseline were as sticky as it got.For this reason I already anticipate with venomous glee the forthcoming series this winter. England versus Pakistan has often gone the same way as recent clashes between Real Madrid and Barcelona. The sport itself seems incidental. The dry pancake pitches of the Middle East dont promise particularly tasty cricket, but with England and Pakistan theres always enough masala off and around the pitch to spice up the play. Other series are kormas and bhunas and jalfrezis; this one is the vindaloo with the warning attached.Relations were not always strained. Writing in the Times in 1954, Sir Pelham Warner applauded a wonderfully spirited series between the two sides: There has not been one even remotely unpleasant incident. Oh, for those rosy days when there was decorum and decency, and people actually read the Times.A year later, all pretensions of friendship were washed away. The MCC were touring Pakistan and took umbrage, shall we say, to the lbw decisions of local umpire Idrees Baig. In Peshawar a group of MCC players kidnapped Beg, tossed him into a tonga, took him back to their hotel, and poured buckets of water over his head. (Thus we can trace the origins of two modern ills to the MCC: the kidnapping of travellers in the Frontier, and waterboarding.)This was a mere aperitif to later argy bargies. The fisticuffs between Mike Gatting and umpire Shakoor Rana are well-documented, as is Aaqib Javeds protestation that a jumper should be handed back on a diamond-studded gold plate, and of course Ian Bothams pro bono work for the Pakistan Tourist Board on behalf of his mother-in-law.Less well known is that an incident similar to Ian Bells non-run-out this summer occurred between the two sides in 1987. Bill Athey ran out Ramiz Raja in a move that had less spirit of the game than a spot-fixer on Nandrolone, appealing for a catch grasped two feet underground. Did captain Mike Gatting recall the batsman? Please. This is England-Pakistan, not an afternoon tea party hosted by the BCCIs public relations chiefs wife.Like on the morning after a vindaloo, the pong of bitterness seems to stick around in the air. People from both countries remember, and make a point of doing so. In one Test in England, Graham Gooch was run out half a mile out of his crease, but somehow the home umpire gave him in. The reaction in Pakistan? Freeze-frame photos of the run-out were plastered on the sides of buses.Pakistans ill-fated tour in 2010 also lingers. An England fan I know says he can never forgive Pakistan for dragging the game into the gutter and ruining his cricket season. It should come as some consolation that many Pakistanis feel the same way about their own sides actions that year.Personally I have always remembered a passage from Mike Marqusees War Minus the Shooting. In Pakistan, during the 1996 World Cup, England wanted to practise on a square but were not permitted because it was the surface for the forthcoming match. An England player allegedly pulled out a 1000-rupee note and asked a senior official to reconsider. An utterly despicable and abominable act: everyone knows that in Punjab such a service would cost at least Rs 1500, plus VAT.On reflection, though, perhaps its better to ignore these antagonisms. Let bygones be bygones; forgive and forget; ignorance is peace. Drinking the world-class Murree Beer with a friend recently, I asked if he knew the origins of the Rawalpindi brewery. No, came the answer, so I told him the companys first owner was the father of General Dyer, he of the 1919 Amritsar massacre. My friend swore off Murree for life, his world forever drier, forever duller. I still dont understand his position. History is history, I say, and beer is beer, and cricket really should be just cricket.Which is all very well until that Jonathan Trott starts on my main man Wahab Riaz again, to which I say: Bring it on. Alex English Jersey Large . Gather a group of friends, or find a league to join online, draft your team, set your lineup and compete in a number of different formats. Custom Nuggets T-shirts . LOUIS -- Heading into the final stretch of the season, the issues for the Chicago Bears banged-up defence only seem to be getting worse. http://www.customnuggetsjersey.com/custom-alex-english-jersey-large-73s.html . -- In one brief spurt, Brazil turned a close game into a rout and proved again it will be a strong World Cup favourite. Cheap Nuggets Jerseys . But by the time the game started, the Toronto Raptors forward felt even worse. And, for three quarters, it showed as Gay shot a woeful three-for-13 from the field. Custom Nuggets Jerseys . Following a lopsided 5-2 loss against the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night, Paul MacLean told reporters that "theres a lack of focus, theres a lack of leadership and theres a lack of preparation" with his struggling team. That came on the heels of Bryan Murray taking the unusual step of going into the locker room at the Prudential Center and addressing the players himself. Kane Williamson and Tom Latham successfully negotiated Indias spinners on the second day of the first Test, but R Ashwin - on an aging Kanpur surface - spun the hosts back into contention by dismissing the in-form duo and restricting New Zealand to just 262 in their first innings.The tourists began day three at 152 for 1, still 166 runs adrift from Indias total. Indias captain - Virat Kohli - brought on his spinners from the onset. The move paid off as both spinners drew sufficient bite from the pitch to trouble the well-set New Zealand duo.Ashwin drew first blood - just five overs into the days play - got one to drift into Latham and trapped him lbw for 58. The spinning pitch proved too much for Ross Taylor to handle and he fell an over later to Ravindra Jadeja.India looked to cash in as the tourists searched for answers against spin. There were none forthcoming; as Ashwin accounted for the inform Williamson three-overs later. Williamson stayed back and attempted to pat Ashwin through the covers but he produced enough spin on the ddelivery to deceive him and rattle the stumps.dddddddddddd New Zealand stood at 170 for 4 at that stage. They never really recovered from the collapse in their batting ranks.Mitchell Santner and BJ Watling showed some resistance and added 36 runs for the sixth wicket before Ashwin drew Santner forward and had him stumped for 32 in the 92nd over. Jadeja then tore through the tail, first accounting for Mark Craig for two and then dismissing Ish Sodhi and Trent Boult - in the 95th over - without scoring. Ashwin added the finishing touches and deceived Watling in flight to claim an easy return catch. An impressive bowling display gave India a comfortable 56-run first-innings lead.Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara added to New Zealands woes and stretched the lead to 215 for 1 at stumps on day three. Ashwin - for claiming the crucial wickets of Williamson, Latham, Watling and Santner - is the Star of the Day. ' ' '