Cricket
Now that the baseball thing is over for the year, I thought I'd cut-and-paste the latest from stumps on Day 3 of 3rd Test match between Australia touring India:
With Harbhajan Singh on the sidelines nursing a toe injury and captain Anil Kumble carrying a suspected broken figure from a dropped catch yesterday, the unlikely off-spin of opening batsman Virender Sehwag claimed three of Australia's most value wickets.
The chubby tweaker trapped Matthew Hayden leg before wicket for 83, bowled Ricky Ponting for 87 and then, in the shadow of stumps, bowled Mike Hussey with the second new ball for 53.
It left Australia 4-338 at stumps on the third day, a reasonable position until it is considered that India's 7-613 declared is still a long way away. Michael Clarke was a circumspect 21 and Shane Watson unbeaten on four.
Already 1-0 down in the four-Test series, Australia must continue to bat for most of today and force a draw then win the final Test in Nagpur, beginning next Thursday, to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Ponting attempted to put himself between India and victory with a vigil of sometimes ugly defiance.
Struggling with his timing on the abrasive surface and again forced to negotiate a wonderful spell of reverse swing and seam bowling from Ishant Sharma, Ponting looked determined to bat for days regardless of how his innings appeared.
After breaking his India Test hoodoo with 123 in the opening innings of the series, Ponting had been dismissed by Sharma for scores of 17, 5 and 2.
Troubled at times by the leg-spin of Amit Mishra, Ponting appeared fortunate not to be given out caught behind defending on 48.
But his dismissal was most unexpected, playing over and around a delivery from Sehwag.
Hayden last night praised Sehwag's performance.
"I think he bowled exceptionally well," Hayden said. "He utilised the conditions as well as any other bowler that was bowling out there today.
"He had variation, he had spin. Some of the balls he was bowling, if (wicketkeeper MS) Dhoni had not had a helmet on they would have struck him in the face.
"That's how aggressive the ball was turning from his hand."
Hayden caused Kumble more pain than he could have imagined.
On 70 the opener charged Mishra and drove hard, only for Kumble to move his 38-year-old body quickly and high enough to intercept the ball at short mid-on.
However, he failed to take the catch and suffered a damaged and bleeding little finger on his left hand which immediately forced him from the field. There were fears it may have been broken, prompting Kumble to go to hospital for scans.
During the first Test in Bangalore Kumble suffered split webbing on his left hand when he dropped a difficult caught and bowled. He is yet to take a wicket in the series, missing the second Test with a shoulder problem. His figures in this match are 0-53 from 17 overs.
Hayden's best innings of the series, which included 13 fours and a six, continued in dominant fashion after the middle drinks break when he lifted the first ball, from Sehwag, over mid-wicket for four.
The left hander went back to the next ball, a quicker delivery, and was trapped.
It was Hayden's highest score of the series after scores of 0, 13, 0 and 29 in the first two Tests.
Indeed, had made almost twice as many in this innings than for the entire series, scoring a total of just 42 runs at an average of 10.5 going into this match.
This is a complete contrast to last summer, when Hayden, 37, made a century in each of the three Tests he played against India.
There was a bizarre interruption two balls after the lunch break when a swarm of bees came across the ground, forcing players and umpires to lie flat on the ground for several minutes.
Before lunch Hayden and Simon Katich completed their first century opening partnership of a difficult tour. Their previous best was 49.
However, half an hour before the break Katich advanced to drive Mishra and was comprehensively bowled for 64, meaning the top three batsmen all made good starts but failed to press on for the big hundred that would have shored up the match for Australia.
Katich scored his second half century of the series and has a respectable 217 runs at 43.75 but he has failed to push on.
The left hander faced 116 balls and hit 10 fours yesterday. He had one or two problems with the lively leg-spin of Kumble, particularly with a delivery which exploded out of the foot marks and went over leg stump at chest height for four byes.
With Australia resuming on 0-50 today, Hayden had a difficult start amid Delhi's lingering smog.
The first ball of the day, from fast bowler Zaheer Khan, came as a great surprise.
Hayden ducked into a short ball and was hit squarely on the helmet, holding up play for a brief time as he inspected the damage.
He was beaten outside the off-stump with the next delivery and then hit again with another short ball, this time on the shoulder.