Wir suchen Dich! » it gets for the young Arizona

Do you remember the first time you hit a ball with a bat?It doesnt matter what type of ball it was or even whether you used a rough stick instead of a bat. Do you remember the thrill of making the ball travel some distance? Perhaps it went a fair way and eventually you discovered that this was achieved by timing the stroke. Perhaps you then nagged a parent, sibling or friend to provide balls for you to hit and before long you were asking them to bowl in the garden, yard or street.Some people are lost to cricket from the very start. It is a little like love.Watching Haseeb Hameed bat is to be reminded of ones innocence and of Blakes echoing green. Like many prodigies, he makes what he does look dangerously simple. This is because for all the technique, the coaching, the selection of shot, there is in his play a palimpsest of his childhood and an eight-year-old boy pestering his father, Ismail, to let him play cricket with his elder brothers, Safwaan and Nuaman.Hameed is no longer pestering; he is demanding. His batting is suffused with a style both simple and cultivated; it expresses his demand that he be allowed to bat for as long as possible. He has been so successful in his 18 first-class matches, all but four of them against Division One attacks, that he is demanding to be selected for Englands winter tours. Experienced Test and county bowlers try to dismiss him and then speak in admiration of his obvious skill, his preternatural self-possession at the crease, his ability to bat with a partner yet retreat into his own world, one which is inured to the comments of opponents. Is it my turn to bat yet?It is a world in which shots are played to balls and then played again to imaginary deliveries as if the quest for perfection can never be completed. There is something Buddhist about all this although Hameeds only noble truth on the field is the accumulation of runs. I cannot think of another young batsman who has radiated comparable tranquility.His opponents say he will play for England. They are right. Hameed is one of the best young players Ive seen in a long time, said Yorkshires captain, Andrew Gale. Hes an old-fashioned opening batter who occupies the crease and didnt get out of his shell all day. He just played beautifully. Gale was speaking at the end of the first day of last months Roses match. Hameed had just made a century against his team. It was as if Joe Frasier has taken time out at the end of the seventh round in Manila to say that this chap Ali could actually box a bit.Then Hameed made another hundred in the second innings. Everyone recorded the fact that he was the first Lancashire player to make two centuries in a Roses match and that he was the fifth-youngest player to make 1000 runs in an English season. What was rather overlooked was that Hameed had faced 209 balls and batted for over 302 minutes to make 114 in the first innings; he then faced 124 balls and batted for 173 minutes to make 100 not out in the second dig.People on blogs have referred all season to the Way of Hameed - that Buddhism thing again? - but Hameeds way is changing. Sharp coaches like Nottinghamshires Mick Newell have noticed that the tempo of his batting is quickening. This is happening not because he is hitting more boundaries - he has frequently collected as many fours as his partners - but because he is learning to work the ball around for ones and twos, often against attacks of international quality.The statistics of Hameeds short career - 18 first-class matches - have been seized on by the games gourmands but they are satisfying to the gourmets, too.In six innings in 2015 he averaged 42.83; after 23 innings in 2016 he averages 53.76. In his 29 innings he has been dismissed for single-figure scores on two occasions.He has been bowled three times in his first-class career and never with fewer than 44 runs against his name.Hameed is an opening batsman. He is 19 years old. Now, please forgive the impertinence, think about those numbers again.Lancashires director of cricket, Ashley Giles, speaks of Hameed with deep admiration and a touch of amusement. He understands that he and sensitive coaches like Mark Chilton have been charged with developing a very special talent.In May Giles was talking about Hameed playing for England within four years; now he knows it will happen sooner than that. He laughs as he talks about not being able to pull the wool over peoples eyes any longer. He also knows that a Test career is what the young batsman has always craved. After playing for Lancashires junior teams, almost always the one above his age, Hameed demanded to be picked for Lancashires senior side. Now he is demanding to be selected for England. We are back with the child whose only interest was playing cricket and in scoring as many runs as possible. Can I bat now, please?Hameed has never hidden his ambition. First Lancashire, then England. His heroes are Test cricketers. First and above all, there was Sachin Tendulkar, the great Sachin as Hameed refers to him. Now there are also Virat Kohli and Joe Root. There must be a fair chance that Root will be Hameeds England captain at some point. The two met during this years Old Trafford Test when Hameed was one of four twelfth men and, as he said, Joe Root changed in my place in the dressing room before making 254. His spot. Lucky Joe. Yes, I know there are many stiff challenges ahead of Hameed and they will offer a more severe examination than he has received before. That is one of the tough delights of Test cricket. The point is that Hameed knows it as well. He wants to take his careful skills, the beautiful way in which he leaves the ball and match them against the best bowlers on Earth. He meets a bowlers gaze but he does not reply to sledges. It is not necessary. He prefers to take a few steps towards square leg as if pondering all that he has learned in the seven or so seconds it takes to face a ball in a cricket match. Then he readies himself again. One imagines Dale Steyn is looking forward to making his acquaintance; maybe one or two Australian quicks have already watched a video or two; Bay 13 at the MCG probably cant wait to greet him. The feeling will be mutual. Just give him a little time.Among all the many judgments that have been made about Hameed one of the most illuminating is also the simplest and, paradoxically, the vaguest. Has gets it, says Giles. What he means is that Hameed possesses a cricketing understanding beyond thought and an appreciation of the game that cannot be coached. It is this that enables him to calibrate risk, (to take back a phrase that has passed from originality to cliché in less than two months). Hameed has all the shots but he will not play them until the odds are in his favour or the game requires him to do so. Otherwise, he might fall victim to one of the ways in which his innings can end and that is always awful. To see him walk from the wicket after someone has dismissed him for a low score is to see a young man beset with sorrow beyond consolation. He always wants to bat. Please can I bat now? Such, such are the joys.Let me end with my first sight of Hameed for it has served as something of an epigraph to all that has followed. On July 3, 2014 Lancashires second XI were playing Warwickshire at Southport. I had that morning returned from watching the first team draw their match at Taunton. I ambled down to Trafalgar Road and saw a Lancashire side that needed 217 to win collapse from 99 for 1 to 143 for 5 as a series of batsmen with first-team experience played half-arsed fancy-dan shots.Although not working at the game, I had taken a notebook. Hameed batted at No.6 and he faced a Warwickshire attack that included Recordo Gordon and Josh Poysden. I watched him play a few shots and started writing down phrases: gently impressive…his shot selection clear and correct… Later they were incorporated into a piece I wrote for the Lancashire website which included the following: It was as if almost every shot Hameed played - there were three false ones in his 79 balls - was a justified consequence of intelligence he had collected.Hameed made 30 not out and Lancashire won the game by three wickets. He did not get off the mark until his 20th ball when he cover-drove a four. He didnt add to that tally until his 40th ball when he pushed a single. That stroke marked a gradual increase in his run rate. Late in his innings, when all risks had been assessed, he drove Poysden for a low, sweet, straight six. Hameed talks intelligently but he is never more eloquent than when he is batting.He was 17 years old and just at the end of Year 12 at Bolton School. Second-team coach Mark Chilton was pushing him hard, dropping him into difficult situations where he would be tested by good bowlers.Above all, perhaps, there was calm. But then there almost always is with Hameed. Calmness is often the first impression made by watching him fulfil his vocation. He admits with a wry, self-aware grin that he has no idea what he would do in life were he not a cricketer. But thats fine because, as his former Lancashire colleague, Ashwell Prince, tweeted during the Roses match, Hameed was born to bat.He is a Chateau Lafite cricketer in a wine-box world. Steve Bartkowski Falcons Jersey . The scientists believe the small earthquake during a Marshawn Lynch touchdown was likely greater than Lynchs famous "beast quake" touchdown run three years ago, which also came against New Orleans during a playoff game. Custom Atlanta Falcons Jerseys . 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Its been too easy so far this year, so a day like Wednesday was inevitable. Fantasy hockey owners lost three monsters, each for a significant length of time. You dont just replace Steven Stamkos, Taylor Hall and?Johnny Gaudreau; you simply try to get by without them and hope your opponents dont get out too far ahead.That said, fantasy value is responsive, and it will move around somewhat within the vacuum these superstars leave behind. Some of it will be lost in the ether, but some of it will stick to other NHLers who may serve a purpose with your fantasy squad. While you cant replace Stamkos, Hall or Gaudreau, you have to pick up the pieces and find the best alternatives.Tampa Bay Lightning: This is by far the most significant of the injuries, as surgery on a torn knee will mean a minimum of four months on the sidelines for Stamkos -- and as many as six. Yes, that means he could have played his last fantasy-relevant game of the season. First off, do you stash him? Yes, but only if you have the convenience of an injured-reserve spot. Otherwise, cut him loose and hope you are in a position to play the waiver-wire game with your league when his return edges closer.As for the remaining Bolts, we know precisely how the team succeeds without Stamkos, because they did well in last seasons NHL playoffs without him, when he was out with a blood clot issue. Look for coach Jon Cooper to get back to the trio of Tyler Johnson, Alex Killorn and Nikita Kucherov as his top unit. They were dominant in the playoffs last season, with Jonathan Drouin, Ondrej Palat and Valtteri Filppula making up the other top-six line. If we see an argument for including Vladislav Namestnikov in the top six this time around, its Filppulas spot that makes sense. Those arent the lines they used Thursday, but they are the lines that got them within one goal of the Stanley Cup finals last season.For fantasy value, this skyrockets Johnson up our rankings, as he is at his best when he gets to play the No. 1 center role. Drouin also flourished without Stamkos presence in the playoffs last season, so he should be scooped back up in the 40 percent of leagues where he has been dropped since the start of the season.New Jersey Devils: While Hall suffered a similar injury to Stamkos, mainly a torn meniscus in his knee, the Devils new catalyst comes with a timetable of three to four weeks. Thats much more manageable, and for anyone who has owned Hall in the past, its almost a relief to get the inevitable injury out of the way early in the season (if only this guaranteed his health the rest of the way!). While Beau Bennett will slide into Halls role on a line with Travis Zajac and P.A. Parenteau, the trio itself is relegated to fantasy irrelevance. While Hall is out, youll want to look at Kyle Palmieri?and?Adam Henrique, and perhaps give Pavel Zacha a test drive. This line gets promoted from second scoring line to top unit with Hall out. Palmieri is already owned in most formats, but Henriques ownership is slipping, and Zacha is well behind. Henrique has four points in his past three games.Calgary Flames: Gaudreau will be out four to six weeks with a fractured finger, but fantasy owners might not have noticed his absence. Thats a dig at how slow the start to his season has been. In fact, Gaudreaus numbers look way better than they did, thanks to four points in his final four games before the injury on Tuesday. This is an opportunity for a fresh start with his owners when he comes back. The good news is that he can stay in top-notch shape because its a finger injury as opposed to a lower-body issue, so in theory, he can hit the ground running in 2017.In the meantime, the Flames used the injury as an excuse to shake up their lines. Sean Monahan now joins the duo of Troy Brouwer and Sam Bennett, while Matthew Tkachuk should draw back into the lineup on a consistent basis to play on the second scoring line with Michael Frolik and Mikael Backlund. The first hope here is that new surroundings will spark Monahan. He is not expected to score at quite the rate of Gaudreau, but six points in 18 games is still unacceptable production from a No. 2 center. The second hope here is that some consistency on a scoring line and some power-play time can help Tkachuk find a rhythm and make him more of a factor for fantasy owners. Hes not there yet, with just seven points in 14 games, but hes played more than 17 minutes in the two games this week with Gaudreau injured, so there is hope.Fantasy Forecaster: Nov. 21-27The Los Angeles Kings are the only NHL team not playing either three or four games next week. And, no, the Kings arent playing in our third five-game week of the season; they only have a pair of games next week.Download the forecaster chart PDF hereFor those new to the Forecaster chart, here are some explanations: O (offense) and D (defense) matchup ratings are based on a scale from 1 (poor matchup) to 10 (excellent matchup) and are calculated using a formula that evaluates the teams season-to-date statistics, their performance in home/road games depending on where the game is to be played, as well as their opponents numbers in thoose categories.dddddddddddd The Ratings column lists the cumulative rating from 1-10 of that weeks offensive (O) and defensive (D) matchups.Team notesMinnesota Wild: They arent scoring a ton of goals lately, but they dont need to the way Devan Dubnyk is playing. That said, this Wild team is now primed for some offense with the return of Zach Parise this week. Interestingly, coach Bruce Boudreau opted to leave Nino Niederreiter with Charlie Coyle and Eric Staal, playing Parise with Mikko Koivu and Mikael Granlund. Its a nice balanced attack and has the potential for returns for both unites. Granlund is probably the most interesting of the group, as his stock has fallen big-time this season, but would be aided by playing with Parise on a regular basis. The Wild have a four-game week on tap that includes matchups against the less-than-elite defenses of the Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets.Dallas Stars: Big changes are coming for the Stars offense prior to next weeks contests. Jason Spezza returned this week from a five-game absence.?Cody Eakin played his first game of the season on Thursday. And Patrick Sharp is eyeing a potential return on Saturday. Watch the lineup on Saturday, as any number of role players could step up to fill the top six for now. The shortlist includes Eakin, Radek Faksa and the continued use of Patrick Eaves. The Stars have some tough opposing goaltenders to start the week with in Dubnyk and Pekka Rinne, but depending on how the lines are shaped on the weekend, any player skating with Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn should be worth using.Goalie notesWe feel bad for doubting Pekka Rinne after a very slow start to the season. He finished October with a 3.22 goals-against average in six games. So far in November, he has a 1.12 GAA in seven games. Hes definitely a No. 1 fantasy goaltender, and were sorry for bemoaning his earlier struggles. Rinne has more than made up for the bad numbers.Jonathan Bernier has now started three of the past six games for the Anaheim Ducks, appearing in four of them. Only one of those starts was part of a back-to-back set. Coach Randy Carlyle, familiar with Bernier from their days in Toronto, clearly still trusts him. If he continues to get 50 percent of the workload, thats enough to make a fantasy impact in all leagues.Tuukka Rask played the most recent back-to-back set on his own, but thats unlikely to occur again this coming week. If you need a cheap, one-off goaltender, Zane McIntyre is likely to draw either the punchless Ottawa Senators or Gaudreau-less Flames.Corey Crawford is close to matchup-proof, but owners might want to have a second look at their plans for next week as the Chicago Blackhawks are on a western road swing against the offenses of the Edmonton Oilers, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings.Conversely, Sergei Bobrovskys schedule has him primed for a potential Player of the Week nod, as the Columbus Blue Jackets take on the Colorado Avalanche (potentially with no Matt Duchene or Gabriel Landeskog), Calgary Flames (sans Gaudreau), Tampa Bay Lightning (without Steven Stamkos) and Florida Panthers.Player notesThe search for a sixth and final winger for the Blackhawks top lines continues. While Vinnie Hinostroza had a shot this week, Tyler Motte is expected back from a leg injury this weekend. If he does return, that could put him in prime position for a four-game week with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane as linemates.A positive sign for Rickard Rakell:?When the chips were down and the Ducks were down 2-0 to the Devils on Thursday, Nick Ritchie was booted from the top line in favor of Rakell. He played out the game there with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, setting up Getzlaf for the first goal of the 3-2 comeback victory.Martin Hanzals return to the ice this week sparked Radim Vrbata to a nine-shot performance on Thursday against the Vancouver Canucks. The line of Hanzal, Vrbata and Max Domi is about as good as it gets for the young Arizona Coyotes, so watch for this chemistry to improve.Its never a good sign when your star finishes pointless and minus-3, but the Oilers switched up their lines on Thursday to promote Milan Lucic and Jesse Puljujarvi alongside Connor McDavid. As mentioned, the results werent great, but this makes Puljujarvi a short-term must-add for deeper leagues and someone to watch closely this weekend for all leagues.We are probably going to regret this recommendation, but medium to deep leagues should scoop up Ryan Strome. The New York Islanders, who continue to be lost on offense, are throwing Strome onto the top line with John Tavares for Fridays game. We still think the talent is there for something good to happen with this opportunity.Hello, Kevin Labanc! The OHLs leading scorer from last season was tearing up the AHL as a rookie so far this season. Now up with the Sharks, he played a few games buried down the depth chart. Then on Thursday Labanc skated with Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton on the top line and potted his first NHL goal. Give him a look. ' ' '