Neuigkeiten » iked, he said. Obviously the two homers

In the week that Theresa May became the oldest person to enter 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister since James Callaghan in 1976, the remarkable Misbah-ul-Haq became the oldest person to play in a Test match in England since Brian Close, oddly enough, in 1976.Close, who was 46 when he was asked to pad up against Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Wayne Daniel, had, 27 years earlier, become Englands youngest ever Test player. Misbahs achievement, at 42 , was even more extraordinary. The first Test against England at Lords was the first he had ever played in that country. Indeed of his young and exciting team, only four - including the great Younis Khan and Mohammad Amir - had toured England before.It was after their last tour of England in 2010, and the spot- fixing scandal that besmirched their last Test appearance at Lords, that Misbah was brought in, as it were to clean out the Augean stables. He has been outstanding in every respect . It is naturally tempting to compare him with Imran Khan, the only other Pakistan captain capable of bringing disparate and willful talents together to form a conglomerate of something like greatness. But the real comparison is with one of history s outstanding captains, Frank Worrell, who led the West Indies to glory in the early 1960s. Both men had something special, something that fulfilled a need felt by a particular team, full of hugely talented individuals at a particular time. Both were essentially father figures - Imran never really managed that - and had an unchallengeable authority that did not need to be demonstrably seen to be followed.Misbahs century on his first appearance in a Test in England was a lustrous adornment to a special Lords day. Pakistan were not exactly in difficulty when he arrived but they should have been doing better. As so often, he showed the way. He is always an immensely sensible batsman but he is so much more than that. The way Englands change bowlers - on the day at least, Steven Finn and Moeen Ali - were dealt with was as clinical as it was elegant.The Lords Test will be remembered for many things apart from Misbahs century. It was one of those games whose bare result - a Pakistan win by 75 runs - tells very little about the intensity of the contest, particularly on the gripping final day. The performances of Yasir Shah and Chris Woakes were especially telling but if there is an abiding memory, it will be Misbahs celebratory press- ups on reaching his century. It has always been more or less assumed that he is the fittest man in the side - although in the field he is s beginning to show signs of what property lawyers call fair wear and tear. Be that as it may, his achievement was remarkable for a 42-year old.Andrew Miller, speaking on ESPNcricinfo, said it was a throwback to the days of Jack Hobbs. Hobbs famously completed a hundred first- class centuries after his 40th birthday. He was exceptional but not unusual. When he toured Australia for the fifth and last time in 1928-29 under Percy Chapman (aged 28) England won 4-1. Hobbs turned 46 on the tour, Phil Mead 41, Patsy Hendren and Ernest Tyldesley both 40.Even in relatively recent times forty-plus players have featured in England Test sides. Alec Stewart carried on till he was 40, just. Eddie Hemmings was 41 when Kapil Dev hit him for four successive sixes to save the follow-on at Lords in 1990. This was the game in which Graham Gooch made a triple century and another hundred; he too went on till he was well over 40.But for a player not from England to go on for so long is highly unusual. The historical reason for this is the professional structure of the English game. English players, operating in the county system, had careers that could last for decades. It was different in, say, Australia, where in Richie Benauds time even the best could not go on indefinitely. Great players like Alan Davidson and Neil Harvey left the game relatively early: Harvey, the last survivor of Don Bradmans 1948 Invincibles, made four Ashes tours of England but when he retired he was only 33. Bradman himself made four tours of England. He turned forty at the end of that 1948 tour.It was the same elsewhere. Even Worrell was only 38 when he made his third and final tour of England in 1963. Clive Lloyd, a comparable figure in some ways, turned 40 at the end of the triumphant tour of England in 1984. Of course overseas players who played in county cricket, like Lloyd, Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Zaheer Abbas and Courtney Walsh, tended to have longer careers. But none of them, not Sachin Tendulkar or Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the old war horses of the modern era, played a Test in England after turning 40.Bert Sutcliffe, the classy New Zealand left hander, toured England in 1965 at the age of 41. It was not a success . He never really recovered from being hit on the head by a ball from Fred Trueman, himself hardly a stripling at 34.Commendable though Misbahs achievements are, it is difficult to see him as a trend-setter in respect of the age of Test cricketers. Its a different world. Misbah was a special man for a particular occasion, which he rose to in a way that no one could really have anticipated. We must take him for what he is - a magnificent aberration, and a rare and joyous combination of the ordinary and the extraordinary.Want to be featured on Inbox? Send your articles to us here, with Inbox in the subject line. Scottie Pippen Jersey . LOUIS -- St. Drazen Petrovic Jersey . The third-ranked Ivanovic, who won the event in 2008 and 10, served five aces and broke Wickmayer, also a former winner in 2009, five times. "The result looked easier than it really was," Ivanovic said. https://www.cheapblazersonline.com/498i-joel-przybilla-jersey-blazers.html . No. 13-seeded John Isner and No. 21 Philipp Kohlschreiber were among six players who dropped out of the tournament on Tuesday, joining No. 12 seed Tommy Haas and two other players who withdrew on Monday. Lloyd Neal Jersey .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. Portland Trail Blazers Pro Shop . LOUIS -- Mike Smith is used to facing plenty of shots, so this was nothing new. CHICAGO -- Miguel Montero waited for five hours before he got a chance to play. And then he had to face a crafty left-hander with the bases loaded.One soft liner made it all worth it.Montero hit a game-ending RBI single in the 13th inning, and the Chicago Cubs rallied for a wild 8-7 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night.Its a winning team, winning attitude, Montero said. Thats (what) its all about. We never quit. We know we can come back anytime. Weve done it all season long, and we did it again today.Dexter Fowler, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo set the stage for Monteros clutch swing with consecutive singles against Jeff Locke (9-8), plating the tying run. After Ben Zobrist was walked intentionally, Montero dumped a 1-2 pitch into left for a big pinch-hit single.The major league-leading Cubs (83-47) dropped two of three in Los Angeles over the weekend, and then their flight to Chicago was delayed. They arrived early Monday morning, and still had enough in reserve to outlast the scrappy Pirates.They had to be tired today, but nevertheless played `til post-midnight with energy, manager Joe Maddon said, and I love it.Rob Zastryzny (1-0) got his first major league win despite allowing Josh Harrisons sacrifice fly in the top half of the inning. Jorge Soler and Willson Contreras homered for the Cubs, and Javier Baez collected four hits.Pittsburgh had won eight straight road games. It fell 1 1/2 games back of St. Louis for the second NL wild card.Nothing to hang our heads about, Harrison said. We went out there and gave it everything we had. We got contributions from a lot of different people. We just came up short.Gregory Polanco and Josh Bell helped the Pirates build a 6-3 lead with opposite-field homers against Jake Arrieta, but Contreras belted a two-run shot to center against Neftali Feliz in the eighth and Soler connected for a tying solo shot in the ninth against closer Tony Watson.Baez was thrown out at the plate to end the 10th and 12th innings. Catcher Francisco Cervelli made a nice lunging tag to get Baez on Rizzos inning-ending double play in the 10th, and then corralled left fielder Starling Martes outstanding throw in time to get Baez in the 12th.Youve got to do everything perfectly and in our case it was done, twice, Locke said.Rizzo, one of the leading candidates for NL MVP, also struck out with runners on thhe corners for the final out of the eighth.ddddddddddddBut his single in the 13th drove in Fowler with the tying run.Bells one-out shot to left in the fourth was Pittsburghs first hit of the game. With two outs and runners on first and second in the sixth, Polanco drove Arrietas first pitch over the wall in left for a 4-3 Pittsburgh lead.Polanco also hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the sixth inning of the Pirates 3-1 win at Milwaukee on Sunday. He was batting just .138 (4 for 29) against Arrieta before his team-best 21st homer.Arrieta was charged with six runs -- matching a season high, also against Pittsburgh on July 8 -- and five hits in 6 1/3 innings. The ace right-hander went 4-0 with a 1.98 ERA in his first four August starts, recalling his dominant second-half run to the NL Cy Young Award a year ago.I didnt pitch as well as I would have liked, he said. Obviously the two homers were kind of the dagger for me.ON SEPTEMBERActive major league rosters can expand to as many as 40 players on Thursday, and Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein said the team isnt ready to discuss in detail what it might do.Weve been working on it and continue to work on it next few days, both our internal decisions and anything that we might consider from outside the organization, too, he said.Asked about Tommy La Stella, who is playing for Triple-A Iowa after initially refusing to report to the minors, Epstein said he thinks the infielder will rejoin the Cubs this week.TRAINERS ROOMPirates: RHP Tyler Glasnow (shoulder) was activated from the 15-day DL and optioned to Indianapolis, where he will make at least one start before the Triple-A season ends next week.Cubs: RHP Pedro Strop (left meniscus tear) is throwing again, and RHP Hector Rondon (right triceps strain) also is making great progress, according to manager Joe Maddon. ... RHP John Lackey (right shoulder strain) threw a side session.UP NEXTCubs RHP Kyle Hendricks (12-7, 2.19 ERA) and Pirates RHP Chad Kuhl (3-1, 3.50 ERA) get the ball for the second game of the series on Tuesday night. Hendricks is 3-0 with a 1.53 ERA in five August starts. Kuhl allowed two runs and five hits in 6 1/3 innings in a no-decision in his previous start Thursday at Milwaukee. ' ' '