NEU » his nightwatchman duties stretched over a further 90 minute

Asked how he felt about literary prizes, Kingsley Amis once said, Well, theyre all right if you win. Its easy to imagine the group of teams circling around the top of the ICC Test match rankings feeling the same. Like literary prizes, the criteria for victory seems arbitrary and hard to understand, and anyway the best - its subjective, isnt it?We dont need algorithms to tell us when a truly great team emerges. The West Indies of the late 1970s and early 80s and the Australian dynasties that succeeded them didnt need a mace and a cheque to validate their efforts. Their greatness bestowed itself upon the game, their defeats in some strange way more memorable than their victories; rare, valiant proof that they were (sometimes) human. Did anyone care about rankings as they watched India play Australia in 2001, or the Ashes of 2005? No, they did not. The battle itself was the thing, and it needed no further context.We live now in less certain times. Has there been a sadder sight than West Indies playing India in a four-Test series before almost no one, the great Viv Richards commentating on a mismatch in an empty stadium named after himself, while the last days of the CPL burned onwards towards a packed-out final tie contested by the real stars of Caribbean cricket? It appeared symbolically bad.Around the same time, Pakistan, a team that has not played a home international match since 2009, won a Test at Lords, but then subsided to defeat in the next two games, in Manchester and Birmingham. New Zealand went to Zimbabwe and illustrated the gap between a side in the middle of the rankings and the team at the bottom (Zimbabwe are so far adrift that eight of the other Test-playing nations are closer in points to the No. 1 spot than they are to tenth place). Australia, officially the best, went to Sri Lanka, who had just been roundly beaten in England, and were humiliated. New Zealand hopped on a plane to South Africa and found themselves trying to play a series out of season, as wet as West Indies and India ultimately became.The pivotal moments of these few weeks came at The Oval, when Pakistan, their glorious fervour calmly channelled by the ageless Misbah-ul-Haq, somehow raised themselves up once more and defeated England. Suddenly all of these random, unconnected, bilaterally contracted events had an overarching narrative that could knit them together, and that narrative was the Test match rankings.A few months ago, I wrote a blog about box-set cricket, the way that tournaments like the IPL, the Big Bash and the CPL fit with modern life, fulfilling the urge to binge on one thing for a brief period. Their self-containment seemed like an intrinsic and obvious part of their appeal, as did their comparative rarity - they may appear ubiquitous but each happens only once a year. They contrasted with the sprawling, soap-opera narrative of Test cricket, which didnt have any obvious entry point or definitive conclusion.Thats not necessarily a negative. As the great Gideon Haigh puts it in the documentary Death of a Gentleman, T20 cricket needs something to be shorter than. Test cricket has accompanied me through my life, changing with geological slowness but changing nonetheless, its storylines inexhaustible and self-renewing. And yet something that takes decades to impose its form needs impetus from outside forces, the shock of the new, whether it be Kerry Packer, the driving force of TV money, or the nonsense of the Big Three.By fluke, all of those Test series going on in the last month provided it. This wasnt quite box-set cricket but it was a happy coalescing that made for a compelling story with a wonderful outcome for Pakistan and the game as a whole. How invigorating and inspiring for Test cricket to have a team at No. 1 that has never been there before, and that has fought almost overwhelming odds to do so.But it has happened by chance. The rambling, unfocused ranking system cant claim credit, or to have solved the problem of giving narrative shape to the uncoordinated, top-heavy mess that is the Future Tours Programme.It is not a Test championship and it cant address the gap between the top teams and the bottom, which suggests a two-division system may work better. It doesnt provide more regular cricket, or a ladder up for, whisper it, more Test playing nations.Instead, it is proof that this endlessly unfolding story can have its way stations, points at which we stop and reset and allow someone to take in the view from the top. As Misbah put it this week, For us, the No. 1 ranking is not a destination but part of a journey.At the grand old age of 64, and with his 17th novel The Old Devils, Amis finally won something - the big one, in fact - the Booker Prize. His surprise and delight were genuine, and the greater for having waited so long. Amis drank in the moment and the view. Pakistan should enjoy doing the same. For once, their story has been properly and spectacularly framed. Air Max 90 Homme Pas Cher Fausse . LOUIS -- The New Orleans Saints looked like a team playing out the string. Nike Tn Pas Cher Site Fiable . Anthony Calvillo, through 20 CFL seasons, was frequently invincible and largely stoic in the heat of competition. But underneath the professional exterior he was, and is, compellingly human. http://www.outletairmaxpascher.fr/fausse-air-max-90-off-white.html .Y. -- Sabres forward Drew Stafford has witnessed plenty of turmoil during his eight seasons in Buffalo. Basket Air Max 270 Pas Cher Femme . Mats Zuccarello and Derek Stepan scored shootout goals, and backup goalie Cam Talbot earned his second win in two nights as the Rangers shook off a late tying tally and beat the Maple Leafs 2-1 Monday night. Vapormax Noir Pas Cher Destockage . It was Kerbers third final of the year after losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in Monterrey in April and to Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic in Tokyo two weeks ago. The 10th-ranked German improved her record in finals to 3-5. Somerset 244 for 3 (Trescothick 117*, Myburgh 54) trail Nottinghamshire 401 (Mullaney 165, Overton 5-54) by 157 runsScorecardMarcus Trescothick has taken his place alongside Harold Gimblett as Somersets most prolific century-maker in first-class cricket. The achievement has been counted down in the West Country for years and, if he recorded his 49th hundred in the gleaming white heat of Trent Bridge, it will be fervently hoped that the record happens to come his way at Taunton with the Quantocks shimmering in the haze and the chance to raise a glass to it with a post-match cider in the Ring of Bells.In 17 previous matches at Trent Bridge, Trescothick had never made a hundred; last year he made a pair. When he walked off at the close of the second day, he had 117 to his name. He slowed markedly in the last hour, not just through weariness, although he was entitled to that, but through a recognition that he needed to be there on the morrow. At 244 for 3, Somerset still trail by 157 and they must face the legspin of Imran Tahir in the fourth innings. They will yearn for 500.He has piled up three first-class hundreds in a fortnight, against the Pakistan tourists, Middlesex and now Nottinghamshire, delivering them with the unshowy sagacity of an experienced midwife delivering a child. His later period is bountiful, his strokeplay hale and hearty. His old England batting partner, Andrew Strauss, has won the argument for flatter pitches - at least for the moment - and he cant get out on them. It is to be hoped he sends a Christmas card.At a time when the debate is variously about how the nation feels ignored by Londons ruling elites, and cricket feels the financial lure of T20 city cricket, he symbolises a staunchness and goodness in the shires. A straight drive against Harry Gurney and a six into the midwicket stand - appealingly close - against Imran Tahir were among his most memorable moments.Somerset fame has moved organically across more than half a century. Gimblett was from farming stock in Bicknoller, near Taunton, and Wisden, in making him a Cricketer of the Year in 1953 described him thus: His frame has always befitted a man brought up in farm life. Two years ago, when the scales showed a weight of 15st 4 ? lbs, and he was finding difficulty in fielding the ball on the ground, he disciplined his diet in the same way as he had disciplined his inclination to hit every ball out of sight. He avoided everything which made fat and, denying himself butter, bread, potatoes and cakes, he reduced to 12 ? st and has remained there. He found he could run about more easily.Trescothick, of amiable shape and disposition, possesses a more modern approach to fitness, but at 40 he rarely moves from slip and his reflexes have remained up to the challenge. As reports suggested of Gimblett, there is a sense of guilelless strength and wholesome strokeplay.ddddddddddddIt is tempting to push the comparison, but Gimblett was known as an uncomplicated hitter. Trescothick has been one of the best England batsmen of his generation.His record-equalling hundred came on a satisfying Somerset day. With Nottinghamshire 311 for 4 overnight, they were up against it, and to take the last six wickets for 90 soon after lunch must have been as good as they dared hope. Craig Overtons resolve had much to do with that, four morning wickets bringing him figures of 4 for 54. If Somerset are to lay to rest relegation fears, Overtons ability to focus his aggression will be crucial.Steven Mullaney already had a Championship-best score of 161 to his name overnight and he equalled his first-class best when he clipped the first ball of the day to the fine leg fence. But that was that as Overton forced a loose shot outside off stump. Samit Patel mistimed a pull to midwicket and lbws in successive balls accounted for Luke Fletcher, his nightwatchman duties stretched over a further 90 minutes, and Chris Read. Overton, returning with purpose after lunch, wrapped things up with two wicketkeeper catches.It was a stonkingly hot day - the first undeniably mustnt grumble day of summer - and Fletchers perspiring attempts to remove Trescothick early were diverting. Closer and closer Fletcher got to the outside edge - or felt he did. From Trescothick there was the same artful play inside the line, minimal movement, maximum judgment, 0.1 calories expended. An entire over passed this way. Fletcher mused about it, re-set his sights and, in the next over, hollered for a catch at the wicket. Not out. Trescothick was still playing inside the line. It was just that the Bulwell Bomber could no longer believe it. A fact he vehemently expressed.In the heat of the afternoon, Trescothick and Johann Myburgh rattled up the first 100 at five an over, Myburgh, looking even more diminutive whenever Trescothick ambled up for an encouraging chat, driving neatly off the front foot in his 54 before Tahir, in his second over, bowled him with a big legbreak.Trescothick towelled the perspiration from his face and glasses and shook his gloves in the heat. His hundred was raised with a glorious cover drive against Brett Hutton followed by a spurted single, in only 122 balls with 19 fours and a six.Gurney ended Chris Rogers untroubled stay courtesy of a leg-side flick and then James Hildreth, whose wicket he seemed to fancy, was bowled playing no shot. Belatedly, a Notts seamer had delivered their best spell oif the day. But the ploughman homeward plods his weary way as Trescothick has plodded for Somerset, so loyally, so dependably and for so long. ' ' '