The first ball of the 28th over of New Zealands innings took off from nowhere to beat Ross Taylors cut. This, at around quarter past four, was only the 15th ball after the rain break. The pitch had stayed under covers for more than two hours, and was now beginning to misbehave. To make matters worse, Taylor seemed to suggest he couldnt see the ball clearly enough. The next ball nipped back in, took Taylors inside edge and went for four. Taylors eyes widened again and the head shook. Umpire Rod Tucker moved in from square leg, stood on the pitch, used his light metre, and found the light to be good enough.Virat Kohli saw both these occurrences. This new-ball pitch was behaving differently under floodlights for whatever reason, and there was uncertainty in Taylors mind and his eye. Sensing his moment, Kohli removed Ravindra Jadeja, who had broken a partnership just before the rain break. He went to the man who can extract every ounce of assistance from the pitch and expose every bit of uncertainty in the batsman: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who said he had told himself before the start of the match that he needed to take a home five-for now that he had got a helpful pitch. In these conditions Bhuvneshwar knew what to do. In West Indies, at times, he bowled to 8-1 fields without conceding any runs into the leg side. Here, against a better batting unit, Bhuvneshwar asked for a 7-2 field, but the idea was clear - make Taylor play almost everything with the light fading. No easy leaves. The first ball that Bhuvneshwar bowled was on a length, outside off, and Taylor had to play the angle. The seam took the edge, and Taylor walked back shaking his head.Kohli got into the act, got the small crowd that stayed back to keep getting louder and put pressure on the batsmen. With his accuracy and an upright seam, Bhuvneshwar provided the batsmen no respite. Shami kept pounding in aggressively. India knew they had nothing to lose in this little period of play. Whatever time they would get under the lights was a bonus, and their fast bowlers could go all out without having to worry about recovering.Not before long Bhuvneshwars accuracy worked again. In two balls, he removed Mitchell Santner and Matt Henry. New Zealand had lost Luke Ronchi to a rough call, a non-turning delivery from Jadeja that was sliding down leg, to what turned out to be the last ball before the rain break, but this period of play was a body blow. New Zealand had nowhere to go. Even India wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha reached in for a bit of sympathy for New Zealand batsmen, saying the ball started doing things under the lights and that it is difficult to see the ball properly when you have just come out.There was no ambiguity in what was happening, though. Not in Luke Ronchis mind at least. At the end of day one, the umpires had told New Zealand they couldnt continue bowling pace. New Zealand opted not to bowl spin, and the umpires took the players off. The light metre is just a guideline under the ICC playing conditions, but the convention is for the first reading to become a benchmark for the rest of the match. On succeeding days, there is generally no play when light dips to that reading. It is also assumed that the side batting at that time was made to bat in better light so play cant be called off until the light becomes just as dim.Ronchi was fine with that arrangement. Im assuming it was exactly the same case as it was yesterday, Ronchi said. I think the umpires, when it gets to a certain point of light level or reading or whatever it is, thats sort of like the starting point for when seamers can bowl and when the spinners have to bowl, when you have the option. Whatever it was, it was the umpires decision really.Ronchi was aware of Taylors displeasure with the light, but he said people react differently when they get out. About the two previous deliveries when Taylor seemed to suggest difficulty in seeing the ball clearly, Ronchi said the decision was still the umpires.Its still the same, Ronchi said. It is the umpires decision really. Theres nothing we can do about it. We could say something and make the umpires have a look at it. In the end of it all, it is the umpires decision. So we go with whatever they are saying.Ronchi was similarly philosophical about two rough lbw calls in three innings in this series. Its cricket, Ronchi said. I think I got away with one against Jadeja today (an earlier lbw shout that looked out). You cant complain. Its going to happen lot of times. You get some good ones, you are going to get away with some. You just turn up and keep going along. Keep staying positive and hit the ball like you want to hit the ball and stuff like that. Get as many runs as possible. Thats how it goes.There was only a small bit of ambiguity in the light-metre benchmarks. It is possible that light deteriorated dramatically on day one and gradually on day two. So a marginally better reading on day two compared to that of day one does not necessarily mean that the light was good enough for New Zealand to bat on. That might be just splitting hairs. And as Ronchi said, the final call is the umpires.Pirates Jerseys 2020 . Irving scored 23 points, Tristan Thompson had 20 points and 10 rebounds and the Cavaliers beat the Denver Nuggets 117-109 on Friday night. Pittsburgh Pirates Gear . Dukurs winning time was 1 minute, 45.76 seconds, a quarter-second better than Russias Alexander Tretiakov. Lativas Tomass Dukurs was third, 1.41 seconds off the pace. Jon Montgomery of Eckville, Alta. https://www.cheappiratesjerseys.us/ . 8 Iowa State on Saturday, sending the Cyclones to their third consecutive loss. The Longhorns (14-4, 3-2) got their biggest win of the season with their third in the row in the Big 12. Pittsburgh Pirates Shirts . Artturi Lehkonen, Joni Nikko and Ville Leskinen had the other goals for Finland (1-0) while Juuse Saros stopped 28 shots. Tim Robin Johnsgard had the lone goal for Norway (0-2). Stitched Pirates Jerseys . -- The St. Johns IceCaps weathered a wild first period with the help of goaltender Jussi Olkinuora, before finding offensive inroads in the second.PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Western New York Flash won just three games on the road during a National Womens Soccer League regular season that stretched from spring blooms into fall foliage. All three road wins came against teams that ultimately failed to make the playoffs, the last of those wins necessary on the final day of the regular season to ensure they avoided that same playoff-less fate.On Sunday afternoon at Providence Park, in front of an NWSL postseason record crowd of 20,086 and against the leagues best team, the Flash did enough to win another road game.Then they did it all over again, a 4-3 overtime victory earning a place in next weeks title game.When it ended, Portland coach Mark Parsons called it the game of the year. He was half right.It was one game. And what a game it was. But Western New York had to win it twice.Which is in its own way twice as impressive.Ahead by two goals against a host that had trailed by that margin just once at home this season, Western New York watched its lead evaporate. Instead of victory, there was 30 minutes more soccer. So the Flash, without momentum on their side, without the crowd on their side and without their ejected coach on the sideline, did it all over again. Two goals in the first period of overtime finally proved enough to win the day.It was the antithesis of so much that is postseason soccer, when the stakes tempt coaches and players to tread caution. Portland not only won the regular season title but compiled the best goal differential and allowed fewer goals than any other team. It did that without many of its best players for long stretches -- seven of 11 starters in Sundays semifinals were also Olympians who spent a good bit of the summer in Brazil. Despite all of that, Western New York refused to play it safe.There was never a chance we were going to park the bus, said Western New York coach Paul Riley, who was ejected late in the first half after arguing with officials and watched the remainder of the game from behind the scenes while assistant Scott Vallow took charge. Were just not that type of team. Even if I told them to park the bus, they wouldnt park the bus. Theyd just ignore me.But with a field littered with proven international stars, almost all of them in Portlands red uniforms and most of them occupying the entirety of the midfield, the Flash floored it. They were direct, aggressive and full throttle.You let Allie Long get on the ball, Lindsey Horan get on the ball, and eventually theyre going to break you down, Riley said of two of Portlands many game-controlling midfielders. The problem is if you do that, and then they score, then what? Whats Plan B after that? Because now youve got to come and open the game up. I think from the start we felt make it an attacking game, open the game up, make it a free-for-all and see what happens.Already sparsely coiffed, Parsons said he lost more hair and felt as if he had four heart attacks. Which more or less sums up the Flashs success in making it a roiling tempest of a game.Western New York struck first, against the early run of play, when a teammates scuffed shot fell to Sam Mewis in the box and she stuck the ball in the back of the net in the 16th minute. Rookie Makenzy Doniak made it 2-0 in the 38th minute, heading in a cross from Jessica McDonald. Both goals were indirectly the result of long McDonald throw-ins. In fact, three of the four goals Western New York scored began with McDonald chucking the ball into dangerous space and seeing what the ensuing chaos produced.Throw the ball far, Christine Sinclair half joked when asked what Western New York was able to do to be so successful. We knew it was a huge weapon for them. And we faced it before. Its just we werent able to deal with that todayy.dddddddddddd We talked about it before the game, [that] its almost better for them to have the ball at their feet than for us to kick the ball out for a throw-in. But we didnt learn from it, and we kept giving them those opportunities. And they made us pay.Notably gracious in defeat, though it had to sting for a player who has been so good for so long that is easy to forget even her prime will eventually end, Sinclair wasnt diminishing the Flash. But if the goals came courtesy of a not-so-secret weapon, the win was much more involved.After goals from Portlands Sinclair and Emily Sonnett leveled the game after 90 minutes, Western New Yorks Lynn Williams scored both of her teams goals in the first overtime. That pushed the lead to 4-2 before the Thorns pulled one back in an ultimately fruitless effort to force penalty kicks.One Williams goal was the eventual result of another throw-in, the other a terrific first-touch finish off an assist from Mewis at the end of a long counter attack. But this wasnt a result earned through momentary opportunism. More than the goals, Williams embodied Western New Yorks game plan on the day when she pressed a Thorns defender in the corner nearest Portlands goal early in the second overtime period. The crowd roared their approval, rightly, when a corner wasnt conceded. But in the bowels of the stadium, Riley had to be cheering the effort still present in his young forward nearly two hours into the match.The part that I like about her is shes very coachable, Riley said. She wants to learn. She knows how to run now. We spent a lot of time with her. I had Amy Rodriguez when Amy was this age, and shes very similar. Great speed, great turn of pace. She knows how to run. Shes now learning how to hold the ball up a little bit. Her finishing is getting better. Shes got all the tools. She didnt play at a big school, she didnt play in a big club program. Shes a brilliant story.The leagues Golden Ball winner, tied for the regular-season lead in goals with Houstons Kealia Ohai, Williams is a star in the making. Western New York has several of those.I think she deserves to be MVP, to be perfectly honest with you, Riley said.There was, of course, some sweet vindication for Riley, even in absentia. Let go by the Thorns after two disappointing seasons and no playoff wins, he took over Western New York only a couple of months before the regular season. He recalled a meeting early in the process when it seemed both he and the players were wondering if it was the right fit. But the Flash won their opening game at FC Kansas City, one of those three road wins, after a late missed penalty.Maybe that changed the season for us, I dont know, Riley said.Defeat has a thousand fathers. Portland didnt deal well with McDonalds throw-ins, or generally with the size and physicality she and Williams offered. The fans inside Providence Park certainly made it clear they felt the officiating didnt help, either, a possible handball and several other penalty shouts uncalled. Horan hit the crossbar in the first overtime, and Western New York cleared a potential leveler in the second overtime.Western New York could have lost. More important is a team with so little experience played to win.Maybe the playoffs were a possibility, they reasoned after that opening win in Kansas City. Then in another year or two, the young players more seasoned, perhaps a run at a championship. Instead, its on to Houston.We just didnt expect it, Ill be perfectly honest with you, Riley said. But here we are.They could have fooled a lot of people Sunday. Its hard enough to win in Portland once.Let alone twice. ' ' '