NEWS » almost sent the game into overtime,

At an optional practice session on Friday, Ravindra Jadeja took first strike against the spinners. He treated them with roughly the same kindness Daffy Duck is used to.Considering how all their best-laid plans backfired - tossed-up deliveries were biffed straight, quicker ones cut away and even the good-length balls were turned into half-volleys and dispatched - it was entirely disappointing that none of the bowlers accused Jadeja of being dithpicable.Then a 46-year-old man took the ball and bounded up to the crease. Oh boy. Where was this going to go? Slog-sweep to midwicket? Over the training area at the back and into main ground?Jadeja planted his front foot forward, but realised he couldnt reach the pitch and was forced to defend. Eight years after his retirement, it still wasnt easy to play Anil Kumble.The sequence continued. Jadeja attacked the rest, but he had to be watchful against his coach, slowly building up to a back-foot punch along the ground through the covers. Kumble had basically grabbed Jadeja by the ear and led him into a tutorial on how to play quality spin.Not that he is a bad one, mind you. Jadeja plays a lot of his first-class cricket on rank turners. He had been one of Indias most important contributors in the last home season, when they played on pitches that spun from day one. His lower-order runs against South Africa were often vital in securing leads. Now he was in Mohali again - scene of his Man-of-the-Match winning comeback from a shoulder injury.It was here also that Virat Kohli admitted to the teams problems against slow bowling, after they lost four wickets to the genial left-arm spin of Dean Elgar. Before that they had lost a Test to the genius left-arm spin of Rangana Herath.Kohli took pains to say the issue wasnt technical. He felt India were giving away too many wickets in clumps. He would be pleased to know, then, that only one of Englands three slow bowlers - Adil Rashid - has a strike-rate under 50 on this tour.Kohli himself has played a big part in that. He has read them out of the hand, tried to play late and off the back foot, trusting the slowness of the pitches and the quickness of his wrists. Even balls that stay low havent been spared from his wrath and barring the time he was hit-wicket in Rajkot, his methods have been flawless. His stats against spin from this series are: 83 singles, 19 twos, one threes and 15 fours that make up 185 runs in 332 deliveries.Cheteshwar Pujara has been even better. He has been collecting four runs per over of spin and averages 163 against it. A lot of those numbers are a result of his confidence in playing a spinner. He loves coming down the track, so much that he wouldnt think twice about doing so for a whole over. He did so quite early against Kumble in the nets on Friday, unleashing an on-drive against the turn, all along the ground. And hes no slouch on the back foot either, as the bowler finds out when he makes the adjustment and flattens his trajectory. It is because of his vast range of shots versus spin that Pujara is often happy to defend or take blows from the fast bowlers. He knows he can prosper later.M Vijay is quite similar, only he takes the aerial route, and tends not to give any warning of those intentions. His hundred in Rajkot was replete with such shots that caught the slow bowler off guard. R Ashwin has become a rock-solid No. 6 at home and he has tackled spin off the back foot with the late cut as his cheat code. None of these strengths are new though. They are just being used a little better and some of the credit for that must go to Kumble. India were bound to improve their batting on turning pitches with one of the greatest spinners in the history of the game in charge.The one area that they clearly have done better is in making sure they are set before dominating a spinner. Moeen Ali, at home in 2014, got a lot of wickets with the Indians going after him blindly. This time, he has been made to work a lot harder because Kohli and company have learnt to rate him better.Not taking anything away from Moeen, I think he is a pretty terrific bowler, Kohli said. He makes an impact in England as well, so he understands which lines and lengths to bowl, what speed to bowl at. Even Adil, I payed against him at the Under-19 level and I told him in Rajkot I was surprised he didnt make it to the England squad in the next two years. When we played back in 2006 he was that good even then.So we understand the quality these guys bring to the table for England. Not everyone plays for England in Test matches. We respect that but at the same time, we understand and we believe that we are good enough to counter that. You saw in Rajkot, they put us under pressure with their quality and we respect that and we are still going to find ways to keep countering what they throw at us.The surfaces India have played on this season have been considerably less extreme and that helped the batsmen as well. But the self-belief that Indias captain spoke about may just have a lot more to do with it. Custom Belgium Jerseys Cheap . After a lengthy wait, persistent rain finally forced the postponement of the Nationals game against the Miami Marlins on Saturday night. The teams, and a few thousand fans, waited nearly four hours from the 7:05 scheduled start time before an announcement was made shortly before 11 p. Wholesale Custom Jerseys . McCarthy, a player who played some games in the second tier for Wigan at the start of this season, would go on to shine inside Evertons midfield, outplaying the man he was brought in to replace, on one of the grandest stages in English football. On Saturday, it was fitting that Manchester Uniteds most recent dagger into the chest was delivered by Frenchman Yohan Cabaye, a wonderfully gifted central midfielder who put on an outstanding effort for Newcastle at Old Trafford. http://www.soccerjerseyscustom.com/ . LOUIS -- Valtteri Filppula assisted on three of Tampa Bays four goals, and the Lightning beat the St. Custom Soccer Jerseys Outlet . World champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia won the gold medal with 237.71 points, Moore-Towers and Moscovitch followed at 208.45 and Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia were third at 187. Cheap Custom Jerseys . Radwanska, making her debut in the Seoul tournament, hit eight aces in a match that lasted 1 hour, 4 minutes at Olympic Park tennis stadium. "It was definitely a very good match -- I was playing really good tennis," Radwanska said. NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Slow starts doomed Bucknell to two double-digit losses earlier in the season.The Bison started slow again Monday night against Vanderbilt, but this recovered for an upset win.Zach Thomas scored 17 points and Stephen Brown and Nana Foulland both added 15 to lead Bucknell in a 75-72 upset of Vanderbilt in the campus portion of the Las Vegas Invitational.Bucknells last win over a Southeastern Conference team was a 59-55 victory over Arkansas in the 2006 NCAA Tournament.We played at Wake Forest and we got blown out there, and then we played at Butler and we got blown out, Thomas said. We got off to a bad start here, but we battled back and showed our toughness tonight and that was a big win for us.Things looked bad for the Bison (3-2) when the Commodores (2-2) hit eight of their first nine shots from the floor, including their first five, to take an early nine-point lead.But a 16-4 run reversed the momentum and Bucknell led 40-38 at halftime.Vanderbilts Matthew Fisher-Davis scored 23 points, including a 3-pointer that tied the game at 65-all with 3:38 left.He had a chance to send the game into overtime, but made only 2 of 3 foul shots with 5.2 seconds left, narrowing Bucknells lead to 73-72.I was just praying hed miss one and he did, and that helped us out, Thomas said.Fisher-Davis finished 4 of 7 from 3-point range.Kimball Mackenzie added two foul shots for Bucknell with 4.1 seconds left. Foulland grabbed 12 rebounds.Hopefully, it will show our guys what theyre capable of, understanding that were not nearly where we need to be to get to where we want to go, but its all there in front of us, Bison coach Nathan Davis said.Luke Kornet scored 19 points and Riley LaChance had 10 points and six assists for Vanderbilt.The lead changed hands seven times early in the second half before an 8-0 spurt by Bucknell gave the Bisoon a 63-56 lead with ring the ball, Kornet said. They were disciplined offensively and defensively. They just did a good job of working to get good shots and then they hit them when they got them.BIG PICTUREBucknell: The Bison suffered two double-digit losses earlier in the season, but showed their resiliency against Vanderbilt.Vanderbilt: The Commodores almost sent the game into overtime, but Fisher-Davis couldnt get a crucial foul shot to drop late despite playing an impressive game overall.BENCH SUPPORTA lot of Bucknell bench players contributed to the win. Avi Toomer, the freshman, came in and gave us an edge when we werent getting stops and we needed it, Davis said. I thought Nate Sestina did the same thing. D.J. MacLeay and Mackenzie also played strong defensively.CONFIDENCE BUILDERGetting a win at Vanderbilt, where the Commodores play so well, will probably help Bucknell. Last year we played a lot of teams really close and didnt get over the hump, Davis said. Hopefully, today they got over the hump and they understand how hard it is and how much effort youve got to give.UP NEXTBucknell plays Norfolk State at the Las Vegas Invitational on Thursday before meeting Sacred Heart or Northern Colorado the next day.Vanderbilt faces Butler at the Las Vegas Invitational on Thursday before playing No. 8 Arizona or Santa Clara on Friday. ' ' '