City from 1886 to 1918. Overseen during the first part of the 20th

Australia, spin, and Asia are terms that havent gotten along well together, especially over the last decade. There was a period between 2002 and 2006 when they had a stunning record in Asia, winning ten out of 12 Tests: they blanked Pakistan and Sri Lanka 3-0, beat India 2-1 and Bangladesh 2-0. Shane Warne was in peak form during this period, taking an incredible 78 wickets from 11 Tests in Asia, while the batting line-up included Damien Martyn, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Darren Lehmann - batsmen who could cope with the spin challenge thrown at them.Since then, though, Asian tours have largely been unfulfilled campaigns for Australia. The one bright spot was in 2011, when they defeated Sri Lanka 1-0, but they have lost eight of ten Tests in India, two out of two in the UAE against Pakistan, and two out two here in Sri Lanka.In the period between 2002 and 2006, what stands out is the Australian bowling average in Asia. Much has been written, quite justifiably, about the Australian batsmens inability to cope with the turning ball lately, but the problem has also been the lack of incisiveness of the bowling unit to hunt as a pack and consistently take wickets and control the game in the field. Between 2002 and 2006, Australia had all their bowling bases covered - Warne was in top form and took care of the spin department, while Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie were outstanding fast bowlers even in the subcontinent. In that period, the Australian bowlers averaged 23.86 runs per wicket; since then it has gone up to more than 40, while the batting numbers have been especially poor in the last eight Tests. A further break-up of the bowling numbers indicates the fall for both pace and spin, but the difference is especially stark for the spinners. From an average of 21.24 during the Warne days, it has ballooned to around 50 over the last decade, a decline of more than 100%. Apart from the drop in average, the spinners have also been increasingly ineffective at controlling the game. Their economy rates over the three periods have risen from 3.18 to 3.71 to 4.16 (in the last eight Tests in Asia). That lack of control has forced the captain to rely more on the quick bowlers, thus decreasing their wicket-taking potency as well.A comparison of the spin stats with the other top non-Asian teams shows that Australia and New Zealand have been the two sides whose spinners have especially struggled for wickets. However, while New Zealands spinners averaged 50.80, they have at least been able to exercise some control over the game, going at 3.44 per over. Australias spinners have leaked 4.16 runs per over while averaging nearly 50. Despite such unimpressive numbers, Australias spinners have bowled 47% of the teams overs in Asia since 2012, which means they have surrendered control to the home batsmen for large periods; in low-scoring games those periods have often been decisive. Nathan Lyon, Australias main spinner during this period, has been candid enough to admit that he hasnt yet mastered the art of bowling in Asia, where overspin isnt as effective as on bouncier pitches of Australia and South Africa. In fact, Lyons overseas average outside of Asia is extremely impressive, and his economy rate of 2.88 indicates his control over proceedings.In Asia, though, his average is almost 45 and his economy rate close to four an over. Among the 35 non-Asian spinners who have bowled at least 250 overs in Asia, only three have a poorer average than Lyons 44.42. His strike rate of 68.4 is ninth among these 35 bowlers, but his economy rate is the poorest, which pushes his average to 32nd. The batting against spin has obviously been a problem in Australias last three series in Asia, which is reflected in the overall averages dropping from the mid-30s to 23.42. Against spin, Australia have averaged 20.56 in these last three series, poorer than all non-Asian teams except South Africa, since the start of 2012. They have also lost a greater percentage of wickets to spin than any other team.Its clear that all non-Asian teams have struggled against spin in Asia in these last five years, with no team averaging more than 28, but England, New Zealand and West Indies have still done about 30% better than Australia. Add that to better displays by their spinners, and its clear why some of those teams have had more success than Australia during this period. Australias batting problems in Asia are reflected in the stats of their two main batsmen in the continent. David Warner and Steven Smith have been prolific at home, averaging more than 60. Smith averages nearly 60 in overseas Tests excluding Asia, with centuries in England, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies. However, he is still searching for his first Test century in Asia, where his average drops to less than 38.Warners overseas numbers excluding Asia arent quite as impressive as Smiths, but the average is still a reasonable 41.38, with three hundreds in South Africa. However, in Asia, his average drops to 32.37, with only one hundred in 16 innings.With a four-Test series in India coming up next year, Australia have plenty to do if they are to avoid the embarrassment of 2013. Mike Quick Youth Jersey . Clarke was injured while practicing on the Doha Golf Club range after the pro-am on Tuesday. The Northern Irishman arrived at the course on Wednesday hoping to start, but after hitting a few balls on the practice putting green Clarke advised officials he was not fit to play. Custom Philadelphia Eagles Jerseys . 10 Texas A&Ms offence dominated as usual against SMU. http://www.theeaglesshoponline.com/Youth-Chuck-Bednarik-Eagles-Jersey/ . Burris threw two TD passes, including a key 15-yard fourth-quarter strike to Bakari Grant that effectively countered a Toronto comeback bid and led Hamilton to a 33-19 victory. Shareef Miller Eagles Jersey . -- Derrick Rose shook off poor shooting early to hit clutch shots late and Carlos Boozer had 20 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 104-95 preseason victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night. Seth Joyner Youth Jersey .com) - Following a late-game loss to the reigning NBA champs, the Toronto Raptors will look to sustain their recent high-level play as they travel to Indiana to take on the Pacers. Welcome to Halloween, everybody!Or, if youre a fan of the Big 12, non-Power 5 party crashers or the vast majority of the schools that entered Week 9 undefeated, then welcome to Halloween II, III or even IV. Your frightfulness got started a little early, didnt it?So, whos next? Who should be tiptoeing into November like my wife when I make her go visit that haunted house they set up in a trailer park on the edge of town? She knows the guy with the rubber mask and the toothless chainsaw is going to be jumping out at her. The only question is how bad will the end result be? Will she merely scream and keep walking, or will she run into the dark, trip over an extension cord and take out a half-dozen people with her when she falls?Here are some haunted-house scenarios for the should-be easy paths to the College Football Playoff. B1G. A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to go to Camp Randall Stadium, where I saw a super-tough Wisconsin team nearly take down a then-undefeated Ohio State. Im convinced that the beating the Buckeyes took both physically and mentally had a lot to do with their sluggish loss to Penn State the following week. They didnt look like a well-oiled machine at Northwestern, either. Now they welcome in Nebraska and will be hoping that the Huskers are suffering from a similar post-Badger hangover.If Nebraska loses, it sets up two-loss Wisconsin for the Big Ten West title and a rematch opportunity against the winner of The Game. Historically those revisits dont work out well for the team that won the first time around. If Nebraska wins, it hands Ohio State a second loss with The Game still to be played. Should the Bucks turn around and win at home against Michigan, then everyone in the conference will have at least one loss. You see whats up here, right? The chances of someone leaving Indianapolis with two losses stuck in their conference championship trophy isnt so crazy to consider. Thats new territory for the College Football Playoff selection committee, especially with a nonchampion like Louisville floating around out there like a ghost waiting to get into your bedroom. SEC. The Alabama-LSU game we all had circled back in the summer is now upon us. No, it doesnt mean as much we thought it might, but LSU is finally playing at the level we always thought it could and the game is at scream-inducing Death Valley. Should Bama lose, it will still be in the drivers seat, but the vehicle still has to go through an Iron Bowl with an Auburn team thats also suddenly surging. Speaking of turnarounds, did you realize that two-loss Kentucky could still win the SEC East? The Wildcats had a pair of 180-yard rushers on Saturday and after starting 0-2 are now 5-3 and 4-2 in the conference with Georgia and Tennessee left to play. With some help (OK, a lot of help) the Wildcats could totally Missouri this thing and get to Atlanta and that could make life iffy for anyone out of the West with more than one loss, especially if UK is obliterated by Lamar Jackson and Louisville the weekend before. Pac-12. Washington keeps winning, no matter how grinding and ugly it can look, as it did at Utah. But acting as if the Huskies will run the table easily from here on out might is not wise. It starts with a trip to Berkeley. Forget how terrible Cal looked against USC on Thursday night. The Bears were playing a second consecutive early week game and against a team coming off of a bye. The reality is that they might very well be the nations most dangerous four-loss team not based out of Oxford, Mississippi. After that, the Huskies will be paid a visit from the very reinvented Trojans team that trucked the Bears. Then, after a visit from Arizona State, comes a suddenly ginormous Apple Cup trip to Pullman to face a Wazzu team thats currently undefeated in the conference but has two losses, including their season-opening clunker with FCS Eastern Washington. Should UW stumble along those four weeks, it might have to depend on a Pac-12 title game against a two-loss Colorado team that has been a great story but is far from a great football team. ACC. Clemson has a playing down problem. With Syracuse, Pitt, Wake and South Carolina remaining on the schedule, there will be plenty of opportunities to do just that. If the Tigers were to lose to one of those seemingly mid-to-back-of-the-pack squads theyll still face a dangerous UNC or Virginia Tech team in the relocated ACC Championship Game. Both of those schools are guaranteed to have two losses when they get to Orlando. If they were to pull off an upset in whats likely to a much more antiseptic environment than weve seen in Charlotte, times will be tense in Greensboro.Big 12. As noted earlier, their haunted-house tour has already happened. What the conference needs is for at least one of the above nightmares to unfold and hope for the best. Or in this case the worst.OK, you can open your eyes now. Its time to get on with the Halloween edition of Flipping The Field.Donnel Pumphrey?Watch. My 2016 man crush ran roughshod over Utah State to the tune of 223 yards, hitting 5,741 for his career and leapfrogging Cedric Benson, Travis Prentice and Charles White to reach fifth on the NCAA all-time rushing list. Im pretty sure that the only person who enjoys watching Pumphrey play more than I do is 90-year old Tom Ables, who was on the rain-soaked sideline for his 778th (!) San Diego State Aztecs game.From the Ridonculous Stats Department: Michigans?Jabrill Peppers??rushed for a TD vs. Michigan State, bringing his season total to four (three rushing, one punt return), equaling Charles Woodsons total during his 1997 Heisman season. On Saturday, he spread his 64 defensive snaps over four positions. With 465 yards passing,?Chad Kelly??broke Archie Mannings single game passing record at Ole Miss. Wait ... Archie Manning threw for 436 yards in 1969?! East Carolina receiver?Zay Jones?hauled in 19 catches vs. UConn, bringing his season total to 114 and career total to 355. He is on pace to break the single-season record of 155 (Bowling Greens Freddie Barnes) as well as the career record of 387, held by former ECU teammate Justin Hardy. Georgia Tech QB?Justin Thomas??led the Jackets to a survival win over Duke via his Total QBR rating of 99.7, the best posted by any FBS QB this season. Racking up 459 yards and four TDs on only 31 runs and passes will do that.Happy Halloween! From the referee and the first-down marker.Were going streaking! Washington has won 11 straight games, the second-longest-active FBS streak, trailing only Alabamas 20 in a row. After starting the year 1-2, Auburn has won five straight, led by running back Kamryn Pettway, who posted his third consecutive performance of 150-plus yards. The only other Tigers to pull that off over the last decade were Tre Mason and Cam Newton ... in years that Auburn won the SEC. Oklahomas Dede Westbrook had his fifth straight game with at least 100 receiving yards and a TD. The man who throws to him, Baker Mayfield, has thrown at least four TD passes in four straight games.Get in the car, Frank ... Then-13th ranked Boise States loss to Wyoming (via a safety!) snapped the Cowboys 22-game losing streak vs. ranked teams. Boston Colleges victory over NC State was its first conference viictory in 13 tries.dddddddddddd Kansas was throttled by Oklahoma 56-3 to extend its record of 39 consecutive road losses. Ohio State beat Northwestern, but QB J.T. Barrett was held without a rushing or passing TD for the first time in 25 starts.Happy Halloween! From the Jorts Boys I met in the parking lot of Georgia-Florida.Cool Threads: Oregon State. The Beavers paid tribute to the 1942 Rose Bowl team with battleship gray helmets that had a 1942 emblazoned on the front. But the coolest were the old school replica 42 Rose Bowl jackets the players found in their lockers.Cool Lids: Arizona State. The Sun Devils Desert Chrome helmets for Oregon were so chromallusiontastic we can see the photographer peering into the coolness. Tommy West Coachs Press Conference of the Week: Jimbo Fisher, Florida State. That scribbling noise you hear is Fisher writing the $20,000 check to cover his fine from the ACC for saying this after the loss to Clemson. And the silence youll hear when this rant is done is the sound of man who doesnt care about being fined.Danny Ford Scientific Rocket Quote of the Week: Mark Dantonio, Michigan State. While in the middle of trying to explain MSUs first home loss to Michigan in nearly a decade, the lights went out in the Spartan Stadium media room. Thats kind of how the day went.Weston Steelhammer Name of the Week: Boo. In keeping with the Halloween theme, I tried to recall all of the college football players named Boo. I came up with a dozen. Utah has had two, Boo Anderson and Boo Bendinger. And I remember when there was a pair of Boo Williams in the SEC simultaneously, a wide receiver at Arkansas and a running back at South Carolina. And one player doubled up all on his own, Bowling Green DB BooBoo Gates.Happy Halloween! The Ag fraternity at Ohio State has apparently figured out cloning.Frank Reich Backup QB Of The Week Award: Arion Worthman, Air Force. It has been a rough October for the Falcons, suffering three straight losses. To make it all worse, starting quarterback Nate Romine suffered an ankle injury halfway through the third quarter, trailing 21-17. So Worthman, a freshman who has been hailed as the teams QB of the future, became the QB of the here and now. Over the next 31 offensive plays he attempted only one pass but rushed for 102 yards and a pair of TDs to lead a comeback 31-21 win. It was crazy, Worthman said after the victory. Nate went down, and our whole sideline went quiet. I heard them shouting my number 2-2-2! and I knew it was my time to go. All the way to the goal line.Comeback of the Week Award, also named for Frank Reich: Houston 31, UCF 24. Just three weeks ago, the Cougars were going to be in the College Football Playoff AND the Big 12. Then they lost to Navy. Then they lost to SMU. Then the Big 12 lifted the drawbridge without letting anyone into the castle. Then Houston was down 24-3 in the third quarter at home against the Knights. The situation was so dire that ESPNs FPI had their chances of winning hovering around 7 percent and everyones Twitter timelines had it set way lower. But then ... they scored 28 unanswered points for a win that felt as if it very much salvaged the season.Shane Falco Almost Comeback of the Week Award: ACC Coastal. Miami trailed Notre Dame 20-0, scored 27 unanswered points, but lost 30-27. Meanwhile, Duke trailed Georgia Tech 28-7, came back to lead 35-31 with 8:55 remaining, but lost 38-35.Happy Halloween! From the Oregon Duck ... or Bear ... or Buck?The Guy You Should Know About, But Probably Dont: Tyler Chadwick, QB, Coastal Carolina. A few weeks ago we told you about Chadwick, who went from being essentially a coaching intern to the third string quarterback because of a slew of injuries to the Chanticleers quarterback roster. On Saturday, he made it into the lineup late during CCUs blowout of Presbyterian. So, the same guy who played second base for the College World Series champions has also now played in an FBS football game. Pretty nice year, wouldnt you say?The Guy You Used to Know About But Forgot About But You Should Know About Again: Bart Houston, QB, Wisconsin. It was starter Alex Hornibrook who led the Badgers to a pair of touchdowns during regulation of this huge B1G showdown with Nebraska. But when the game hit overtime it was benched former starter Houston who got the call from Paul Chryst and led the Badgers to the game-winning TD.The Team You Should Know About, But Probably Dont: Kentucky. No, seriously.Speaking of Kentucky ... Remember Hal Mumme, godfather of the Air Raid offense and former head coach of the Wildcats? These days hes calling the shots at NAIA school Belhaven University in Mississippi (I mean, I know you already know this because you read my piece on Dana Holgorsen last week, right?). On Saturday, the Blazers lost to Hardin-Simmons, but not before Mumme called in a fourth-down play where the quarterback threw a lateral to a backup quarterback, who faked a pass and punted ... but the line drive bounced off a defenders head and was recovered by a Belhaven player. First down! The Game You Should Be Psyched For But Probably Arent: Washington at California. Go back and read what I wrote up top of this here column, wont you?Happy Halloween! From the SEC Nation crew. Paul Finebaum told me that when the SEC Network did this shoot on Friday night in Jacksonville, he didnt even require makeup.Extra Point: Whats the most Halloweeny college football program of all time? That wouldve been All Hallows College, a Catholic high school and four-year mens college that operated in Salt Lake City from 1886 to 1918. Overseen during the first part of the 20th century by a series of eccentric Marist Fathers, the school with an enrollment of around 200 fielded a football team, though only briefly. The records of the gridiron efforts of All Hallows are shoddy at best, but we do know they fielded at least four teams, playing a somewhat bizarre crossover schedule of high school and college teams. We dont know how those teams fared other than looking at their record against existing schools. The team that local papers referred to as The Collegians was 0-3 against Utah, including a forfeit in 1898 and 0-2 against Utah State with losses in 1907-08. The only complete season we know of was the five-game slate of 1906, with wins over Idaho State, two high schools and a military base before losing to Utah 23-0. Mercifully, Utah doesnt recognize that win, listing it as a scrimmage. While the pipe smoking, St. Bernard-loving Marists loved sports, Salt Lakes first bishop, Lawrence Scanlan, despised intercollegiate competition. Since it was Scanlan who founded the school, named after his alma mater in Dublin, when he said no more football, there was no more football. When the school went under, the haunted house-ish building was used as by the Utah National Guard as an armory. Today a shopping center stands on the site. I wonder, on Halloween night if one stands in the cold of the produce section one might hear Bishop Scanlan whispering No ... more ... football ... for Hallows Eve ... And I bet he looks like Finebaum in that grim reaper getup. ' ' '