ut in the eighth, Ramirez struck out Didi Grego

Suppose you were to play Ronnie OSullivan in a frame of snooker. You would lose - you know this before you start; the only question being by how many points. The game simply requires too much sustained excellence - potting accuracy, cue-ball control, safety-play precision - for you to even contemplate an upset. Were you to play Ronnie at pool, however, and broke off by sinking one ball and spreading the rest, then provided you held your nerve, the chances are you could beat the greatest cueman the world has ever seen. Compression - potting eight consecutive balls on a table a quarter the size of a competition snooker table - provides opportunity.Does the same logic apply to cricket: the longer the game, the less chance of a giant-killing? Does T20 carry the greatest chance of a potential upset, followed by List A (or ODI), followed by first-class cricket (or Tests)?It was a discussion that surfaced in 2014, when Michael Vaughan floated the idea of an FA Cup-style domestic T20 competition - straight knockout, no seeding to protect the big clubs, with Minor Counties sides and others invited - to run on free-to-air TV alongside the existing NatWest Blast round-robin format. Of course, crickets thralldom to finance and need for guaranteed fixture lists rendered the idea a non-starter, but it was interesting to ponder whether such a tournament would provide a greater chance of an upset - Vaughan said 5% - than in the minor counties 41-year participation in the Gillette Cup and its successors, which produced ten giant-killings in 336 matches. (In the Benson & Hedges Cup, the Minor Counties representative XI won six games out of 139.)Does a shorter game really lower the odds, or on the contrary, has T20 engendered such a degree of specialisation that it would no longer be possible for the good amateur team - even bolstered by an overseas player or two, and playing on the poor club wickets on which most of those giant-killings took place - to contemplate an upset? Could it be that the skill set possessed by decent bowlers just below first-class level - shaping the red ball away, good accuracy, pace in the 75-80mph range - translate to white-ball T20 fodder? Is it only in the professional environment that players can hone the yorkers, slower balls, reverse sweeps, ramps and suchlike that are integral parts of the T20 repertoire nowadays?What if we scale up to international level, to battles between the lesser teams (who might in any case be fully professional, as with Ireland) and established powers - do the same principles hold, even with better pitches and more evenly balanced attacks? Or, to ask a closely related question: which format most lends itself to Associates being competitive with Full Members, thus encouraging and nurturing the spread of the game?Perhaps the recent self-interested reluctance of Full Members either to imbue Test cricket with more context in the form of the two-divisional structure, or to expand the game by providing more opportunity for Associates to participate in ICC global events - the next 50-over World Cup has been contracted from 14 teams to ten, and the format of the next World T20 is under discussion - renders this moot. Meanwhile Irelands and Afghanistans recent results provide ammunition for both the expansionist and pro-streamlining camps: the latter have won an ODI in Dhaka, beaten Zimbabwe 3-2 in ODI series and 2-0 in T20s both home (Sharjah) and away, and were, of course, the only team to beat West Indies in the recent T20 World Cup. Ireland, meanwhile, have suffered very heavy ODI defeats to Australia, South Africa and Pakistan in recent weeks, and slipped to 15th in the T20 rankings. Yet even if the question is increasingly hypothetical, its still worth considering which format offers the best chance of an upset.It is not inconceivable that an Associate that produced one all-time great bowler (Richard Hadlee and Muttiah Muralitharan carried New Zealand and Sri Lanka at times), backed by solid batting and disciplined support bowling, might compete in Test matches. Zimbabwe approached their first years as a Test-playing country by playing conservative cricket, hoping that taking the game deep would pile the pressure on opponents who were always expected to beat them.Restricting ourselves to the two white-ball formats, conventional wisdom would suggest both that the 50-over game gives a team more chances to recover from a wobble than T20, its greater ebb-and-flow potentially beneficial to an underdog, and that victory in the latter only requires one or two players - or fewer than in 50-over cricket, at least - to perform well. Evidence from World Cups in the two formats doesnt make an unambiguous case either way - and there are many different kinds of giant-killing, of course: low-ranked Full Member beats high-ranked Full Member; Associate beats low-ranked Full Member; Associate beats high-ranked Full Member in dead rubber; and the shockoholics favourite, Associate beats high-ranked Full Member in live game.There have been several victories by Associates over the high-ranked Full Members in the World Cup. Sri Lanka shocking India in 1979, Zimbabwe downing Australia in 1983 and England in 1992 (in a dead rubber), and Bangladesh beating Pakistan in 1999 all presaged their Full-Member status. Kenya beat West Indies in 1996, as well as Sri Lanka (and Bangladesh) in 2003. Ireland have, over the last three tournaments, beaten Pakistan, England and West Indies.As for the six World T20s, a total of 24 games pitting Associates against the Big Eight throws up only three major upsets: Afghanistans victory over West Indies, and Netherlands two wins over England. Perhaps this reflects the fact that T20 is crickets state of the art, the place where the resources and systems of crickets moneyed elite should be rendered swashbucklingly, bamboozlingly manifest.And yet, this convergence of imagination, technology, bowler-punishing playing regulations and intensive training increasingly pervades the 50-over game. The two formats are becoming largely indistinguishable, as Eoin Morgan acknowledged in the wake of Englands record-breaking 444. The knowledge that, in good batting conditions, 275 just wont be competitive pushes sides to recalibrate their risk-reward calculations, with the odd crash-and-burn 180 from going too hard, too early more than worth it for posting 300-plus and being competitive. It is this mentality as much as administrative tweaking that has all but killed the Boring Middle Overs.Nevertheless, it is logical that as the scores rise in ODI cricket, close games will be less likely, period, let alone between teams unevenly matched on paper. No room for spoilers and grinders here - at least, not on good pitches. In addition, five in the circle until over 41, plus the Associates general lack of bowling weaponry allows highly trained 360-degree batsmen longer to assert their supremacy. The chasm between amateurs and pros that T20 has opened up in English domestic cricket could be replicated by the T20-fication of the longer form of limited-overs cricket, creating a parallel chasm between Associates and Full Members.And if competitive advantage in T20 is, arguably, to be found less in top-line bowling - neutered as it is by leg-side wide rules, bouncer rules, effective boundary size and so forth - and more in power-hitting capacity, then does the greater likelihood of a guy playing out of his skin for 25 balls than for 125 mean that, after all, T20 offers the better chance of an upset? Jack Mayfield Jersey . The phone hearing is scheduled for 4:30pm et/1:30pm pt. Winchester, who was not penalized for the hit, appeared to make contact with Kellys head early in the first period of Thursdays game in Boston. Rusty Staub Jersey .05 million next season unless Graham and the Saints subsequently agree on a long-term deal. The designation was released Monday after the deadline passed for NFL teams to use franchise or transition tags on players becoming free agents. http://www.customastrosjersey.com/custom-cristian-javier-jersey-large-1766y.html . You can watch the game live on TSN at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt. The Flyers had won seven of eight before dropping their last two outings on consecutive days over the weekend. Philadelphia was handed a 6-3 loss by the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday afternoon before dropping a 4-1 decision to the Rangers the following night in New York City. Nolan Ryan Jersey . Marincin has played in two NHL games so far this season with two penalty minutes. The 21-year-old has three goals, four assists and a plus-5 rating in 24 games with the American Hockey Leagues Oklahoma City Barons this season. Don Larsen Jersey . -- The Portland Timbers and Real Salt Lake played to a 0-0 tie Saturday night that left the top of the Western Conference standings unchanged. ANAHEIM, Calif. -- After going winless for two months, Jhoulys Chacin decided to think like a reliever.Chacin (4-8) allowed six hits over 5 2/3 innings, struck out four and walked one in his first scoreless start since April 12 for Atlanta, leading the Los Angeles Angels over the New York Yankees 2-0 Sunday.It felt good, not just for me, but for the team too, Chacin said. I wasnt trying to do too much. I was just trying to throw strikes.Albert Pujols had three hits and scored twice on singles by Andrelton Simmons. That was enough offense for Chacin, who had been 0-4 in five starts and eight relief appearances since beating Minnesota on June 14.Making his third start since rejoining the rotation, Chacin used a relaxed bullpen mentality.I thought he showed really good stuff, Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. He had good command of both his breaking pitches -- his slider and his curveball. He didnt make many mistakes with them. And when we needed him to, he found some velocity and some good movement on his fastball.Deolis Guerra, JC Ramirez and Fernando Salas followed with hitless relief. Salas pitched a perfect ninth for his fourth save.After winning the first two games of the series, New York entered four games over .500 at 63-59 but for the fourth time failed to move five games over.Chad Green (2-3) allowed one run and five hits in six innings, which matched his big league high. He struck out 11 in six scoreless innings against Toronto on Monday when he rejoined the rotation.He didnt have his cutter today, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. But he still found a way to get through it all and give up one run. He was a little bit different today, but the good thing was that he found a way to get through it.Pujols had his seventh three-hit game this year. Aggressive base-running by allowed him to score from second base on Simmons first single. Pujols went from first to third on C.J. Crons single and scored on came home on Simmons two-out ground single just beyond the reach of second baseman Starlin Castro.ddddddddddddSomething thats lost in everything is Albert going first to third in the eighth inning, Scioscia said. That opened up a hole there at second base where Castro was playing.One night after tying former St. Louis teammate Mark McGwire for 10th on the career home run list at 583, Pujols nearly surpassed his close friend. Center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury made a leaping catch at the wall in the fifth to deny Pujols a two-run homer.New York was 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position. Mark Teixeira hit an inning-ending flyout to leave the bases loaded in the fourth. After the Yankees put two on with one out in the eighth, Ramirez struck out Didi Gregorius and retired Castro on a groundout.Our opportunities, we have to take advantage of them when we get them, Girardi said. We werent able to do that today.TRAINERS ROOMAngels: RHP Huston Street has gone to Texas to seek a second opinion on his injured right knee in Texas and may need offseason surgery. Scioscia said surgery likely would be minor and would take place in the offseason. Street was placed on the 15-day disabled list with right knee inflammation on Aug. 2.UP NEXTYankees: RHP Michael Pineda (6-10) will pitch on an extra day of rest Monday when the Yankees open a series at Seattle, his former team. Pineda pitched five scoreless innings against Toronto in his last outing and has won five of his last six starts.Angels: LHP Tyler Skaggs (1-2) starts Tuesday when the Angels open a three-game series at Toronto. In his third start following Tommy John surgery, Skaggs allowed four earned runs and six hit in 3 1/3 innings against Seattle on Wednesday.---This version has been corrected to show the Yankees entered Sunday at 63-59 and to fix the spelling of Didi Gregorius. ' ' '