导出博客文章The whole world was waiting to see those feet hit the crease. Those famous feet,
the ones that changed world cricket, ruined a young mans career, and sent him to
jail. Editorials, hot takes, blog posts, sarcastic tweets, hurried whatsapping,
but those feet were on the balcony. And they werent the feet that stuck
out.Orange shoes. Misbah-ul-Haq is wearing orange shoes. Misbah cricket, the tuk
tuk, a man blamed for losing an entire World T20, derided for his lack of flair,
lack of energy, and inspiration, is wearing glow in the dark shoes in his first
ever Test at Lords. Like a dad who has bought himself a green tuxedo for his
daughters wedding, this was a big day for Misbah, hes been waiting a life time
for it, and he and his shoes were going to look their best.It feels like a
middle-aged crisis, or like he put on Shahid Afridis shoes by mistake. They look
so orange that he is courting the kind of controversy that his whole captaincy
has been about eradicating; outlandish statements, weird happenings and ICC
sanctions.There have always been two Pakistans, its the orange shoe wearers you
notice, its the Misbah guys you dont. Its as if Pakistan wishes it could be
Shahid Afridi, while trying like hell not to be like Misbah.They produce
effortlessly cool cricketers like Afridi, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Shoaib
Akhtar, Abdul Qadir and Fazal Mahmood as often as England finds a line and
length medium fast bowler. They produce these marvels of cricket, crazy, wild,
beautiful, flawed genius poets of cricket, tossing back their flowing locks,
twirling their evil moustaches, bowling pixie dust, playing cricket as if the
world is a magical place just for them. One look at a Wasim inswinger or a
Zaheer drive and you are hooked, and convinced, that Pakistan are a romantic
action-comedy blockbuster of a side, but this isnt Pakistan, this is the
Pakistan cricket dream sequence.Behind the cool is a ton of plodding medium
pacers, professional stonewallers, and sturdy spinners. Guys who work hard, put
huge prices on their wickets, toil, sweat, practice and bleed for their nation.
Without beautiful hair and a cavalcade of female admirers, they push on through
terrible admin, a chaotic home schedule and play in anonymity as the flashy guys
take the spoils. For every Shoaib Ahktar there are 100 Sarfraz Nawazs shuffling
to the crease, for every Inzi there is an Ijaz Ahmed, alongside Javed was
Mudassar Nazar, and after Saqlain there was Abdur Rehman.If Imran is king of the
sexpot centerfold Pakistani cricketers, Misbah is the office manager of their
countrys accountancy firm.The running joke in cricket is that Pakistani players
may not always be truthful with their age, and when asked why Misbah was only
getting a go in the team so late in life, Younis Khan said he wasnt that old, it
was just that his stated age was actually accurate. Such is Misbahs dedication
to being dour and honest, you could imagine he added a couple of extra years to
make up for others shaving some of theirs.Before the Test he said: If a
cricketer has just started playing, its his wish that he can play at Lords. That
means for 35 years Misbah has dreamed, if a man like Misbah allows himself to
dream, of batting at Lords leading his country. And here he was, the mere 15
years into his career, the mere 42 years into his life, striding to the wicket
with his team needing him.There was a lazy push that should have been caught, an
awkward miscommunication that should have been a run out, but the rest was
Misbah. After 19 balls he was on a near comatose 2, and most of his early
boundaries were just him trying to connect with Steven Finn down the leg side.
He did what he had to do.Like he did when his team needed a moral compass to
base itself around.Recalling the series in the UAE, Alastair Cook said before
the match, Misbah scored about 95% of his runs against spin, I dont think hell
be facing as much spin as he did there. Mooen Ali came on for the 40th over with
England well on top, Misbah dab swept and then bash sweept him; 28 overs later
Moeen would bowl his third over. His fourth over went reverse sweep, sweep,
reverse sweep, and sweep: 16 runs, done in such stunning efficiency and symmetry
it was like he had had them scheduled in his calendar. Another batsman would
have made it dangerous or exotic, Misbah scored 16 runs in an over like a dad
mowing his lawn. He did what he had to do.Like he did when the PCB asked him to
play on in this tour and against Australia, despite him edging towards
retirement.Then there was only Finn left, with Misbah now 99. Bereft of line and
or length, he decided to bounce Misbah from around the wicket. Misbah had been
camped on the front foot all day, and now Finn made him think afresh. The crowd
had started a slow clap for Misbah, even his team-mates had joined in. Finn had
a cluster of catchers on the leg side, and he got one just to behave as he
wanted it. The ball hit glove, hip, something, and popped up, but it was short
and wide of one of the catchers. Misbah took a walk and composed himself, there
were 15 guys on the balcony and about 28,000 in the crowd who looked more
nervous than he did. He just took his time.Like he had to when he waited 1499
days between his third and fourth Tests.But Finn gets it wrong, instead of being
in and at the body of Misbah, the taut athletic ageing body, he is wide outside
off stump, and Misbah just guides the ball into a gap and slowly makes his way
up the other end for his 100th Test run ever scored in England. It is not
flashy, not extravagant, or memorable, just a guide and slow single. There is no
hurry, there never has been, its like Misbah knew one day this would happen,
just like this. He gets beyond the crease, gently takes off his gloves and
helmet, salutes his balcony like a general after a great battle, and then down
onto the ground in the position to kiss the turf.Instead he does push ups, his
orange shoes are in the dirt. Ten push ups.Like all the times before, the world
was waiting for some Pakistan magic, and instead they got Misbah.Misbah survived
the second new ball that Asad Shafiq could not. And as he walked off the field,
unbeaten, he looked over at Rahat Ali, the nightwatchman whose sole job was to
make it to stumps, who instead decided it was time for a back-foot cover drive
against Englands most successful bowler of the day, and he laughed. The crowd
were clapping, and standing for Misbah, but all he could do was look at Rahat
and laugh, like a father who actually couldnt believe what his kid had just
done.Misbah is the father of modern Pakistan cricket, the general of this team,
and yet still, to some, the tuk tuk. Just a tuk tuk that performs like a
Bentley, saves Pakistan, defies his own age and now has a hundred at Lords and
can still laugh at the absurdity of it all.They dont often come to see Misbah
play, but he plays anyway.
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There are some early surprises in the race for the Hart Trophy, but two of the
contenders are the leagues biggest stars over the past decade. There are many
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and a good or bad week can easily alter the landscape, but through the first 20
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Charlotte Bobcats coach Steve Clifford said after all of these years in the NBA
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Yogi Ferrell orchestrates pretty much everything in Indianas offence. RIO DE
JANEIRO -- Speaking to reporters after the all-around final in mens gymnastics
Wednesday night, Sam Mikulak and Chris Brooks expressed pride in their seventh-
and 14th-place performances, and satisfaction with a level of competitiveness in
which the two Americans avoided major errors in all six of their routines.The
juxtaposition was still stark. For at the same time they made their remarks,
medals were being awarded following one of the hardest fought and definitely the
highest level the sport has ever seen as reigning gold medalist and six-time
world champion Kohei Uchimura of Japan edged out Ukraines Oleg Verniaiev for
gold, while Great Britains Max Whitlock picked up the bronze.Separated by
fractions of a point all night, the drama reached its climax on the high bar,
the final rotation for both Uchimura and Verniaiev. Performing last and needing
a 14.899 for gold, Verniaiev appeared to have nailed it as the hushed crowd
erupted, only to gasp minutes later when he received a 14.8, a full point below
Uchimuras high bar score.The final point total: Uchimura 92.365, Verniaiev
92.266.The 27-year-old who led Japan to team gold two days earlier, became the
first man to achieve back-to-back titles in the Olympic all-around since his
countryman Sawao Kato achieved the feat in 1968 and 1972.After winning the group
gold, it was tough to refocus, Uchimura said. Im so exhausted right now.The
charismatic Mikulak, on the other hand, said he jumped from 16th-place after the
third rotation to a final seventh based on the pick-me-up he got from slamming
his third can of his herbal energy drink, a business he and two friends started
while he was at Michigan.I honestly believe that was the turning point for me,
said the 23-year-old, who added that he wants to compete in at least one more
Olympics.Like Brooks, who at 29 was an alternate on the 2012 Olympic team,
Mikulak, 23, beat the odds to compete both in London (after a sprained ankle
kept him out of five of six events at Olympic trials) and in Rio (after
completing rehab in March from surgery to repair ankle and Achilles
injuries).Criticized for his inconsistency at times and again during team
finals, when he went out of bounds on his first two passes on floor -- the
Americans first rotation -- Mikulaks mission was clear.I hit six-of-six
[Wednesday], I think that was the biggest goal of mine coming out here, he said.
For a while, the P&G [Championships] and trials [both in June], I didnt hit
six-for-six, but I came to the grandest of stages and I did it here. So I think
I proved to myself and a lot of others that Im stiill capable of hitting all my
routines.ddddddddddddor Brooks, this will be his first and last Olympics, his
battered body delivering one of the better nights of his career Wednesday.I have
a whole new respect for those who have competed in all-around finals before me,
he said. That was intense, it was extreme. My body was sore, I was tired after
doing prelims [Saturday] and team finals [Monday]. It was an emotional roller
coaster through all that. And then to have to get up and do six events
[Wednesday], it was mentally and physically a struggle, but Im glad my training,
my preparation, everything Ive been doing outside the gym, paid off.To see my
name even near the top of the scoreboard was an amazing honor.While it is a
sport, to be sure, in which competitors are often separated by no more than
tenths of a point and one or two mistakes, Mikulaks 89.631 was 1.01 off the
bronze medalists point total and leaves the men to re-examine their
program.Certainly finishing fifth [as a team] puts everything into question and
you have to take a serious look at it and it falls on my shoulders as team
coordinator, Kevin Mazeika said. I have to take a really hard look at it and see
what we need to do to get over the hump and get back on the medal stand.Were
definitely not satisfied with finishing fifth. [But] it was a different fifth
[than 2012] in terms of the way these guys did everything and anything we asked
of them inside the gym, outside the gym, with preparation, nutrition, diet, the
mental part of it. Theyre all working very, very hard and we saw some amazing
gymnastics. There were incredible bright spots.Mikulak, for all intents and
purposes the face of U.S. mens gymnastics as the four-time national champion,
said he wants to work with young gymnasts to maximize their potential and not
make the same mistakes I have. But he also prefers to look at the positive.It
wasnt quite as nerve-wracking as I thought, he said of Wednesday night. This is
the type of situation where youve got to remember it for the rest of your life.
And when I came out on the floor, I was like Wow, either this moment is going to
be super nerve-racking or its going to be very enjoyable. You just have to trust
your training, breathe and youre like, Wow, this is exactly the same thing I do
at home.It was just very nice to have that takeaway and mentally its going to
help propel me from here on out. ... I just look to the future and hope I can
keep smiling and enjoy myself. ' ' '
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