ast timeout. A kill by Hutson made it match point and Rivers ca | Forum

Thinking back to the English summer of cricket, I first remembered a conversation with Steven Finn after the second Test against Sri Lanka. Los Angeles Lakers Store . I asked him about James Vince, whose selection had delighted anyone with Hampshire cricket in their veins and anyone else who appreciated batting in its purest form. I was worried that Vince was confused by the demands of the higher game and was therefore afraid to parade his gifts. Finn told me to rest easy. Vince, he said, was the real deal; so much so that the bowlers didnt much like lining up against him. He had time to play, said Finn, making a quick bowler feel as if he were letting it go at gentle medium. I wondered about saying this to Vince, but I dont know him well and decided not to meddle.Had I been his captain or coach, Id have told him to puff out his chest a bit. Batsmen need to create ownership, especially if they dont already have it. The Vince we love watching for Hampshire has a calm authority that is the envy of others. The one for England these past few months has been reticent. Sadly, at this first attempt, the Hampshire captain was unable to pass the ultimate test - the test that consumes us all.I like chatting with Finn. His honesty is refreshing, he is engaging and generally wise. As Middlesex surged to the County Championship title on Friday afternoon last, he knocked over Yorkshires Steve Patterson with a pearler of a full and fast outswinger. Watching his celebration, I figured all must be well with his world after a difficult period in an England shirt during the early part of the summer.At the other end Toby Roland-Jones was bowling in a manner that surely impressed all the old fast-mediums tuned in. Fellows such as Ken Higgs, who passed away recently, Peter Lever, Geoff Arnold, Chris Old and Mike Hendrick, Neil Foster, Angus Fraser, Andy Caddick, Dominic Cork and Matthew Hoggard, to name but a few. It is old news now, but to win the Championship with a hat-trick is a history-maker of note. Roland-Jones is a big man and immensely strong. It appears that Gus Fraser has rubbed some of the old magic on the boy: You miss, I hit was very Fraser, and now it seems, is very Middlesex dressing-room. The coach there is Richard Scott, who plays his own part deliberately low-key. Scotty was with Hampshire till lack of opportunity drove him to Gloucestershire. He had a fantastic ball-striking ability, far greater than his record suggests. He would have prospered in the freer-spirited atmosphere of todays game.Back to Vince. Correctly, he has been left out of the tour to Bangladesh. Ill bet he is mentally shot. Ill also bet that in the long term Finn is right, but we must wait the day. The spotlight caught Vince off guard. He is a shy soul, provincially so. After a few mistakes, the constant media examination and analysis are impossible to ignore. He cover-drives the ball close to perfectly but lost his chutzpah to do so. Half-heartedly, Test match after Test match, he fell on that very sword: the strength that betrays you as weakness. He is not the first, nor will he be the last. Even the best have to wade through the morass. David Gower was brilliant square of the wicket off either foot, but during a slump, the strokes that helped make his name cost him his place. Mind you, the analysts in his day didnt pick at the carcass as they do now. The selectors picked the right man. The right man failed them. A shame indeed, but dont give up on him. We all develop at a different pace. The problem for the selectors is getting it right. Talent is easy enough to see, temperament is not. When Tony Greig was searching for a batsman to repel first Lillee and Thomson and then the West Indians, he took a poll among the umpires. The question was simple - who is the hardest man to dismiss on the county circuit? Geoff Boycott, they cried. But Geoff wasnt up for it. Whos next? asked Greig. David Steele, they whispered, not truly believing they would see it for themselves. When they turned on the telly, there was Steele - or Groucho Marx as Thommo called him - marching out to bat at Lords. Nothing funny about it. Steele ended up as the BBCs Sports Personality of the Year. He would be the first to admit he didnt have Vinces sublime gift of timing, but he had a mountain of courage and temperament. Batting talent is mainly perceived as strokeplay but this is misleading. Talent is given in different forms and Steele, like Boycott, had plenty of his own.Not truly satisfied with Alex Hales against the red ball, the selectors have made two riveting juxtaposition choices to battle for his spot alongside Alastair Cook. Ben Duckett plays with fearless abandon, Haseeb Hameed with more modest intent. Hameed had made his impact in the first division, however - a definite plus mark. Duckett has torn the second division to shreds, as Vince sort of did in 2014. We shall see. It may be easier to fly under the radar in Bangladesh. Whichever one of them gets first dibs will almost certainly be given the series. Duckett has an advantage there in that he will open in the one-day games first and could make an unanswerable case with an innings or two that matches those for Northamptonshire this summer. If not, Hameed is pencilled in anyway.English batting is changing. Inherent fear - a reference to the glass being half-empty - has been replaced by a gratifying sense of adventure, as if cricket is for fun. This is the most encouraging thing to happen to the game across these green and pleasant fields in a long time. It has made England an enterprising and exciting side to watch, albeit one prone to a tumble. Rather that, though, than the meek surrender of days gone by.The Test series against Pakistan was a belter and 2-2 was about the right result. It was no bad thing that England didnt win, for the team has a way to go. For much of the summer Cook alluded to the periods when concentration and/or metal stamina go absent without leave. This is both cockiness and laziness, and it is a legacy of all that T20 brings - among them a lack of care for defence of the wickets. Its too glib to say you cannot have both enterprise and discipline. You can. Joe Root proved it with his fabulous 254 at Old Trafford; Younis Khan with his double-hundred at the Oval. These were two innings of substance and style that matched any played by the legends of the past.The only selection surprise that I could see was the omission of the Middlesex opener Nick Gubbins. What a gem he looks! We must assume Fraser, who is an England selector as well as the Middlesex director of cricket, knows best, for he has seen Gubbins from the starters gun to his superb match at Lords last week. It is no exaggeration to say that Middlesex would not have won without him.This is a good time for cricket at the top level. The price is high because the players have earned the board the chance to up the ante. International cricket usually receives the focus of general attention, but that extraordinary climax to the Championship brought the very best of crickets myriad attractions to the table in just four days of fascinating play across the land. There were winners and losers and saints and sinners, with teams caught the right side and the wrong side of the line. We should celebrate the fact that English cricket is not lagging behind. The advent of a new city-based T20 competition will allow it to become a market leader. But the Championship and the resulting Test match team are the soul of a game spawned every bit as much in the mining communities as within the estates of country houses. Cricket is no kind of a game without its soul. Wholesale Lakers Jerseys . In the lead up - which seemed to begin the moment Mike Geiger blew the whistle in Houston last Thursday night - the Impact rumour mill went into overdrive. The speculation went into meltdown mode, of the golden nugget variety. Lakers Jerseys 2020 . All of the scoring came in the final 20:04. Lucic scored on a power play at 15:46 of the third period, when he tipped a shot over Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen for a 3-1 lead. https://www.lakersjerseycheap.com/ . John Lucas, signed as a mentor for rookie Trey Burke, showed he can score if required, scoring 12 points of his 16 points in the second quarter as Utah built an 18-point lead. BAYAMON, Puerto Rico. - Alabama volleyball opened its weekend at the Puerto Rico Clasico with a tough five-set win over Virginia Tech Thursday night.Alabama (4-1) and Virginia Tech (3-1) traded set victories throughout the match, sending both teams to a fifth set. The Tide led by as much as four points late in the fifth before the Hokies fought back within one late. Back-to-back kills by Kat Hutson and Krystal Rivers ended the set, 15-12, and gave Alabama the close win. Rivers accounted for 22 of the teams 56 kills, hitting .326 along with 14 digs, good for her second double-double of the season. Brittany Thomas and Natalie Murison tallied 13 digs each, with Thomas hitting .333 with nine kills.Virginia Tech took an early two-run lead in the first set and eventually pulled ahead by five points at the halfway mark, leading 12-7 as Alabama took a timeout. A 7-2 run out of the break allowed the Tide to tie the score at 14-14 and a kill by Hutson gave Alabama its first lead of the frame, 15-14, with the Hokies taking a timeout. The two teams traded back and forth until, tied at 22-22, a block by Thomas and back-to-back kills by Rivers and Thomas gave Alabama the 25-22 win.The Hokies charged out to an early 8-3 lead in set two, forcing an early Tide timeout. Virginia Tech maintained its five-point lead at the next Alabama timeout, up 13-8, and eventually hit the 20-point mark with a 10-point lead. The Hokies reached set point with a double-digit lead, 24-13, and eventually won, 25-14, to even the match at 1-1.Tied at 2-2 early in set three, Alabama built a large lead with a 9-3 run as Virginia Tech took a timeout trailing 11-5. The Hokies burned its second timeout soon after, trailing 15-8, but eventually cut the deficit to five points as Alabama took its own timeout leading 18-13. Los Angeles Lakers Gear. The Tide continued to surge ahead, closing out the set with a service ace by Murison to win 25-16 and take a 2-1 match lead.The two teams traded points back and forth through the first half of set four, with neither team taking a lead larger than two points. The Hokies took its largest lead at 14-11 but the Tide swung back in front, 17-16, with Virginia Tech taking a timeout. Looking to close out the match, the Tide pulled ahead 21-17 but the Hokies rallied and scored seven-straight points and hit set point, 24-21. A kill by Hutson briefly gave Alabama possession but Virginia Tech knocked in a kill to win the set, 25-22, and force a fifth set.A service ace by Rivers gave Alabama an early 6-3 lead in set five at Virginia Techs first timeout and two more points made it an 8-3 lead at the midway point of the set. The Hokies fought back to draw within one point, 9-8, but the Tide pulled back ahead 13-9 before Virginia Tech managed to make it a 13-12 game as Alabama took its last timeout. A kill by Hutson made it match point and Rivers capped the win with a kill for a final score of 15-12.Next up, the Tide continues play at the Puerto Rico Clasico against Florida State on Friday, Sept. 2 at 4:30 p.m. CT.For the latest information on Alabama volleyball, follow the team on Twitter (@AlabamaVball), Instagram (AlabamaVball) and Facebook. ' ' '