an embarrassing home loss with a rout of their own

Had Pakistan moved their kit into the England dressing-room they could hardly have made themselves more at home at Edgbaston.Having shown England how to bowl in such conditions on the first day, they showed them how to bat in them on the second. From the moment Misbah-ul-Haq won the toss and took the bold decision to field first, Pakistan have demonstrated a better understanding of the ground that Stuart Broad referred to as Englands Gabba. If they also provided local restaurant recommendations and the best tips on avoiding the traffic, it would be no surprise.Even in selection, they have shown the way for England. By dropping Shan Masood for Sami Aslam, they have shown decisive decision-making that makes Englands rather give a player one Test too many policy appear cautious and laboured. Continuity of selection is clearly a fine policy in general but, taken to extremes, it can become a burden. Several times in the last year or two, England have gone into Tests with players low in confidence and with their places hanging by a string. It is hard to think of a single occasion - not with Trott, not with Compton, not with Lyth and not, as yet, with James Vince - when it has worked.Aslam showed England how to bat in England. He left more deliveries than the whole of Englands top four combined. He left the sort of deliveries that dismissed Joe Root and Vince. He defended with the sort of conviction that might have saved Alex Hales, and he rotated the strike and accumulated in a way that might have alleviated the pressure on Vince. And yet Aslam is a 20-year-old playing his first Test outside Asia, and his first first-class game of the year.It was similar on the first day. Sohail Khan, also playing his third Test and his first outside Asia, provided a masterclass in bowling on the sort of slow, seaming wickets that are so prevalent in England. He made the batsmen play, didnt waste effort on too many short deliveries and he bowled the full length that ensured he optimised any lateral movement on offer.England had patches in which they bowled very well. Straight after lunch, James Anderson and Stuart Broad delivered tight spells which demanded respect from the Pakistan batsmen. At no stage did England allow the Pakistan run-rate to build. As a result, they have maintained a foot-hold in this match.But, by then, they had largely squandered the new ball. They had failed to make the Pakistan batsmen play at enough deliveries and allowed them to play themselves in. The insistence on giving the new ball to the labouring Broad, in particular, when Chris Woakes has emerged as Englands most dangerous seamer, increasingly looks inflexible and stubborn, while Steven Finn was rarely threatening on a pitch offering him little. By going at more than four an over Moeen Ali, too, struggled to hold down an end. And that really is a substantial part of his role in this side.That all left England reliant on Plan B. But if a team is going to bowl dry and wait for the batsmans mistake, they have to make sure they take their chances. Joe Roots dropped catch here was not easy, but nor was it the first slip chance they have put down this summer. Ben Stokes, with bat, ball and for his catching, is keenly missed.England could claim, with some justification, that these conditions do them few favours. They might, at a push, even claim such slow, low wickets have more similarity to those found in the UAE than those they might prefer to find at home. And it is true, there is none of the steep bounce that might exploit Pakistans potential frailties and this surface lacks the carry to exploit some of the edges that might have carried to the slips. Certainly, there has been very little home advantage exploited by England in this series.But England cant sulk like truculent teenagers - and for a large part of the day, Anderson did look very much as if he had been asked to tidy his bedroom before he was allowed on his skateboard - every time they are not gifted a green seamer. Theyre not going to find any green wickets in India or Bangladesh this winter. And theyre not going to find any in Australia the winter after. If they are going to be the best side in the world, they have to prove they can be potent in a variety of conditions.To be fair to Anderson, he admitted as much after play. As well as apologising to the umpires, he conceded that they could have bowled better and that their average batting had got us in this situation.Besides, the suspicion remains that conditions had not eased so much for batsmen from day one to day two. The suspicion remains that, while Englands batsmen pushed at balls they could have left, Pakistans waited for them and had the patience to build at under three an over. We will see for sure when Pakistan bowl for a second time, but the suspicion remains that their bowlers simply gained a little more from the surface than Englands and that their batsmen sold their wickets more dearly.Misbahs decision to bowl first has been hailed, in some quarters, as a masterstroke. But had anyone asked the Edgbaston groundsman ahead of the game, they would have heard him talk of the potential virtues of such a decision. They would have heard him suggest that the wickets here tend to be at their best for batting on day two and three and warn that, in the first few hours of the game, the bowlers would gain more assistance than at any other time. He also believes there will be little assistance for spinners and that the pitch is unlikely to deteriorate noticeably. It is, in short, a pretty typical contemporary Edgbaston surface.There has been much talk in recent years about the disproportionate value of home advantage in Test cricket. But, during this Edgbaston Test at least, Pakistan have shown the greater ability to adapt and the better technique to exploit such conditions. It has given them an outstanding opportunity to build a match-defining lead on day three. Jeff Kemp Jersey . Note: The Calgary Flames announced Tuesday that Sean Monahan would not be made available to Canadas World Junior team. Larry Allen Jersey . That left plenty of energy for pitching books and swatting away free agency questions. Anthony had 24 points and nine rebounds, and the Knicks avenged an embarrassing home loss with a rout of their own, beating the Boston Celtics 114-88 on Wednesday night for their third straight victory. http://www.custompatriotsjersey.com/custom-nkeal-harry-jersey-large-71f.html . 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(STATS) -- Danny Roccos move from Richmond to Delaware on Tuesday raised the number of head coaching changes at FCS schools to 10 since the start of the 2016 season.Rocco completes a change that began during the season when Delaware fired Dave Brock. Assistant coach Dennis Dottin-Carter took over on an interim basis and the CAA Football program set its sights across the conference to Rocco at Richmond, where he was 43-22 in five seasons.Since the end of the regular season, Presbyterian replaced Harold Nichols with Tommy Spangler, who returnned for a second stint as head coach, and UC Davis replaced Ron Gould with alumnus Dan Hawkins.dddddddddddd.Other schools seeking to replace head coaches are Abilene Christian (Ken Collums), Bryant (Marty Fine), Furman (Bruce Fowler), Howard (Gary Harrell), Lafayette (Frank Tavani) and Lamar (Ray Woodard).In a related move, Morgan State took the interim tag off Fred Farrier, naming him to the permanent position. ' ' '