Die Macht » by Will Bruin from the top of the penalty ar

Click here for week one of The Confectionery Stall Stat-vent CalendarSeven more stats for you to unveil, one each morning, instead of looking at a badly-drawn picture of a robin, or eating a disappointing chocolate, or releasing a live and irritable scorpion, if you have been given a prank advent calendar by a lifelong foe.December 8Parthiv Patel is the sixth greatest Indian Test opener in history - if you judge greatness purely by the time between the first time you do something and the last.Parthiv first opened the batting for India in December 2002, when he walked out alongside Sanjay Bangar in Hamilton, in the third innings of the only Test in history in which both sides were bowled out for under 100 in their first innings. It would have been a tough assignment for a 100-Test veteran opener. Parthiv was a 17-year-old wicketkeeper with fewer than 500 first-class runs to his name. If someone had told the teenager then that he would still be opening for India almost 14 years later, he would probably have thought to himself: Well, this is obviously going to go very well indeed. I can confidently look forward to a glorious career of unremitting run-scoring and national adulation.Parthiv was bowled for a fourth-ball duck, and, before Mohali last month, had opened only once more, making 69 in an innings victory in Rawalpindi in 2004, partnering Rahul Dravid in the early stages of his career-best 270.The 13 years and 11 months since the Hamilton debacle (which was also, excluding matches curtailed to fewer than 25 overs, the only Test since 1890 in which no batsman has reached 40), put Parthiv in sixth place on the all-time longest-serving Indian Test openers list. If he can open again in February 2021, he will supplant all-time leader Mushtaq Ali, the legendary stylist from Indias early Test years, whose 16 innings as opener spanned 18 years and a month from January 1934 and February 1952.(The rest of the top five: Sunil Gavaskar (16 years, March 1971-March 1987, 203 innings); Vijay Merchant (15 years and four months, June 1936-November 1951, 12 innings); Navjot Sidhu (15 years, December 1983-January 1999, 69 innings); and Dravid (14 years and nine months, November 1996-August 2011, 23 innings).)December 9Joe Roots 179-ball 78 in Mohali was only the fourth time in his last 32 Test innings (over 17 Tests since November 2015) that he has faced more than 130 balls.He also topped the 130-ball mark when making 124 off 180 in Rajkot. He faced 406 deliveries in his 254 against Pakistan at Old Trafford, and his Johannesburg 110 took 139 balls. In his previous 33 innings, over 19 Tests after his 2014 recall, he had lasted 130-plus balls on 14 occasions.He batted for 130 balls six times in his first 29 Test innings before he was dropped for the final Ashes Test of the 2013-14 horror tour. You may well argue that 130 balls is an oddly random number of balls on which to base a statistic. And you may well have a point. But, as the Confectionery Stalls sole stat-arbiter, I declare that the stat stands. Especially when viewed in the context of the following…December 10 Some time on December 10, England will participate in their 43,104th delivery of international cricket in 2016 - breaking their national record for most balls of cricket played in a year. (Assuming good weather in Mumbai.) (And a match that lasts into the third day.)At this point, England will have played 31,009 deliveries in Tests, 9807 in ODIs, and 2288 in T20 internationals since New Year, breaking a record set way, way back in 2015. By the end of Chennais fifth Test, they will have played around 83,500 balls of international cricket since the 2015 World Cup in all formats, the equivalent of 155 90-over days of actual cricket in just over 21 months.As a bonus multiple-choice question, are the December 9 stat and the December 10 stat in any way related?(a) Yes (b) Probably (c) YesAnswers on a postcard to: The ECB Head Golden Goose Squeezer, Department Of Excessive Scheduling, Cricketsville, England.I would go for (a) or (c), I think. Root is still batting well, still scoring influential runs, still looking like Englands most complete all-round batsman for decades. But have his powers of concentration been slightly dulled by Englands ceaseless cricketing churn?Depending on the length of the final two Tests, England will probably end fifth or sixth in the Most Balls Of International Cricket Played In A Year list, at around 46,000 deliveries, still some way behind Indias 2002 record of 50,826 (in 16 Tests and 35 ODIs).December 11 Since the end of Englands superb series win late in 2012, visiting batsmen in India collectively have averaged 21.84 in 16 Tests, while recording a Won 0, Lost 14 record. Indias spinners have averaged 20.22 in these matches.By comparison, when touring the West Indies at its statistical peak-unplayable, from 1984 to 1986, visitors collective batting average was 20.69, and the West Indian pacers averaged 20.77 (a figure bumped up by an almost heroic devotion to no-balls). The challenge currently provided by India in India, then, is statistically comparable to what is rightly regarded as perhaps the toughest batting assignment in Test history. Not as frightening, nor as likely to result in a nasal rearrangement, nor promising a lifetime of harrowing flashbacks of Michael Holding limbering up to come on as second change, but almost as damaging to the batting average.Other inhospitable hosts have provided statistically similar obstacles - for example, Australia and South Africa around the turn of the millennium, Pakistan in the late-1980s and early-1990s, Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2008, when Murali averaged 16 in home Tests, England in the mid-to-late 1950s, Australia in the immediate post-war years. In terms of numbers, India in India in the past four years have been in a similar bracket of statistical difficulty for visiting batsmen.December 12Adil Rashid needs five wickets in the final two Tests to become only the third England bowler since Ian Botham in 1979-80 to take 30 wickets in a winter season.In between these two somewhat contrasting bearded allrounders, Steve Harmison took 32 in 2003-04 (nine in a Test in Bangladesh, 23 in four in the West Indies), and Graeme Swann 37 in 2009-10 (16 in two matches in Bangladesh, 21 in four in South Africa).Few bowlers have enjoyed a seven-Test winter to achieve this landmark, but Rashid already has 25 victims after five Tests. Other than Swann, who took 25 or more in three winters out of four from 2008-09 to 2011-12, the only England spinner of the last 50 years to record a 25-wicket winter has been Derek Underwood, who took 33 in both 1970-71 and 1976-77.Conclusion: You cannot take 25 wickets in a winter season as an England spinner without going on to take at least 250 in your Test career.(Tony Greig took 29 in eight Tests in 1974-75, but how many were with spin and how many with seam is something Statsguru does not reveal. Ashley Giles came close, taking 24 in six Tests in Englands victorious series in Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 2000-01, when he became the first England spinner to have even a 20-wicket winter since Geoff Miller in the 1978-79 Packer-era Ashes.) December 13 During the first 29 matches of their 31-Test 2015-2016 marathon, Englands batsmen have made 46 scores of 80 or more, but converted just 23 of them into centuries.You do not need to be a rocket scientist to work out that this means they have a 50% conversion rate of 80s into 100s. A very basic grasp of arithmetic will suffice. Even excluding the two not-out sub-100 scores, the conversion rate is 52%, compared to 77% in the previous four years, and 69% by all other Test teams combined in the 2015-2016 period.Moreover, 17 of Englands 21 80-plus conversion failures have been dismissals in the 80s, giving them an astonishing 39% out-in-the-80s rate (other teams combined in the same period: 22%; all teams throughout Test history: 18%).If you want to repeat the multiple choice question above, please do so.England players have been out in the 80s ten times this year. One more in the final two Tests of the year will break the all-time record by a Test team in a calendar year, currently shared with the England of 1982, and the Australia of 1977.December 14 Australias 378 for 5 in the second ODI against New Zealand in Canberra on Tuesday was the eighth successive time they have scored 320 or more when batting first in an ODI on home soil.The sequence began with a ritual flaying of England in their World Cup opener at the MCG in February 2015, and they had scored 329 for 5 against South Africa, also in Canberra, late in 2014, meaning that nine of their last ten innings batting first in home ODIs have been scores of 320 or more. They had posted 320 in four of their previous 49 home first innings (excluding two rain-shortened matches). More numerical proof of the statistical trauma inflicted on modern ODI bowlers.Click here for week one of The Confectionery Stall Stat-vent Calendar Marshon Lattimore Jersey . -- Gus Malzahn finally had his day in Fayetteville. Ryan Ramczyk Jersey . The catch: It needs a lot of money, and it needs it fast. http://www.shoptheofficialsaints.com/Elite-Sam-Mills-Saints-Jersey/ . - Chris Tierney snapped a tie with a power-play goal late in the third period as the London Knights rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Erie Otters 5-3 in Ontario Hockey League action on Wednesday. Marcus Williams Womens Jersey .Y. - Jerome Samson scored once in regulation and again in the shootout as the St. Bobby Hebert Womens Jersey . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. SEATTLE -- Most nights, Stefan Frei would be thrilled with a shutout on the scoresheet and a point in the standings.On Wednesday, the Seattle keeper and the rest of the Sounders clearly were hoping for more.Frei made five saves, deflecting one shot off the right post, and the Sounders played to a 0-0 tie with the Houston Dynamo.The draw moved the Sounders (13-13-6, 45 points) closer to securing a spot in the MLS playoffs. The Dynamo (7-13-12, 33 points) already have been eliminated.Seattle, which has surged to a 7-1-4 record since Brian Schmetzer took over coaching duties in late July, could have clinched a spot with a win. Now, it will have to pick up points in either of its final two regular season games, or hope that San Jose and Portland come up short in their final games.Weve gone on a tremendous run, and its really nice to string together wins and climb the table, Frei said, who earned his eighth clean sheet. This was the opportunity to reward us for all that hard work. Today was the opportunity to get something out of it and not just have another win. We kind of blew that chance.With that being said, theres more chances left to take care of those other two games.Seattle played the final 26 minutes with 10 men after midfielder Osvaldo Alonso was sent off with a straight red card following a scuffle with Bruin. The Houston forward received a yellow card.One of the things that sticks out is we shoot ourselves in the foot again by getting a silly red card, Frei said. Those are things we have to eliminate because we have enough quality and desire to succeed.ddddddddddddHouston nearly got on the board in the 30th minute on a shot by Will Bruin from the top of the penalty area. But Frei dove to his left, got a hand on the ball, and watched it bounce off of the right post.Just 9 minutes later, Frei went the other way to knock away a blast by Andrew Wenger.Dynamo goalkeeper Joe Willis did his part in the other net. He stopped Seattles Erik Friberg twice just seconds apart in the 40th minute, and finished with seven saves for his fifth shutout.In the second half, Seattles Roman Torres and Chad Marshall both had headers off of corner kicks that went wide. The Sounders outshot Houston, 15-11, had 11 corners to the Dynamos five, and owned 61 percent of the possession.I think we did find some patience. I just didnt know if we were quite sharp enough in that final third when we had a lot of corner kicks, Schmetzer said. We needed a couple more quality looks on goal to get us that first goal.Seattle and Houston have played to four straight ties, including all three games this season.This is a difficult place to come play, so Im really happy with the shutout, said Dynamo coach Wade Barrett, whose team had surrendered three goals in three of the past six outings. Weve given up a couple goals in the past couple games, so Im always pleased when we put in the defensive work like that -- and that was from everybody in the group. ' ' '