Test cricket is an anomaly in the modern world; after 30 hours of scheduled play you can still end with a draw. Of late, though, it has been under immense pressure to cut some flab, especially from the broadcasters who practically finance the game.The proposal is to bring it down to four days, allowing them to schedule it to start on Thursday and finish on the weekend. The MCC world cricket committee recognised the pressure on the format in its meeting in Mumbai, but it finished split down the middle when it came to removing a day from Tests.Two of the cricketers on the committee, Ricky Ponting and Ramiz Raja, were personally in favour of keeping the format as it is but they recognised the need for changes. We have had two days of meetings, and to be fair we spent more time as a committee debating this four-day comparison to five-day Test cricket, Ponting said.It is pretty fair to say that the committee was probably split right down the middle as far as understanding and identifying that the Test game does need some changes. Things have to change to try and make the Test game more attractive but also we are trying to protect the fabric of Test match cricket.Personally, I am very much in favour of five-day Test cricket and we only have to look back at the last 12-18 months and see how many great five-day Test matches there have been. But other guys in the committee would also like to see a trial of four-day Test cricket.Raja acknowledged he saw the benefits of a shorter Test format, but still favoured the existing model. It is a difficult debating point, he said. One big advantage with a four-day Test match is that it improves the pace of Test cricket, and there will be exciting declarations and something out of the ordinary, which may give new lease of life to Test cricket.But my biggest grief was that the lesser teams would get away with murder, they would be able to draw a game and in Test matches the best teams should win all the time, so that limited that possibility. Four-day cricket is exciting, it gives ample opportunity to broadcasters to get the peak days…end it on Saturday or Sunday, which could be great watching.But I was also in favour of five-day cricket because it has a lot of history, it is traditional and we should not tamper with a format, which has been delivering the goods. In the last year and a half, we have seen some exciting cricket.Ponting touched upon possible complications that might arise from the pressure on the pitches to deliver outright results.If we ever go to a stage where four-day Test was the way we are going, a lot of it will be down to how the wickets are prepared, he said. The one thing we dont want is more draws. No one wants to see more drawn games. We want to see entertaining Test matches be it over four or five days.Thats what we have seen of late. Very aggressive cricket when needed, very defensive when needed as well. One of the pros for four-day Tests is every Test potentially starting on Thursday and finishing on Sunday. Maybe it frees up a few more days in the international schedule. But I am all for keeping it as it is. Its the way I learned playing the game. Its the game we all enjoy playing over five days.In its press release, the MCC cricket committee outlined what they considered the pros and cons of the four-day Test debateProsClear scheduling for all stakeholders (TV, fans, players), with every Test played Thursday to Sunday on a weekly cycle.Greater crowds likely in grounds and more viewers on television for the last two days of the matches.Given that the Boards want guaranteed cricket on both days of a weekend, ideally towards the end of the game, this model makes scheduling easier and will allow tours to be shorter.Shorter tours would mean that less cricket would need to take place out of each countrys regular season, meaning fewer rain interruptions.Players would have to speed up the over rates, with suspensions for captains not meeting the required targets (though DRS does slow things down). Spinners might need to be bowled more.Play would be likely to change to a more attacking style, which might help to arrest the dwindling crowds in many countries.Clearer scheduling for grounds in relation to staffing and operational costs, with most Tests running the full four days.Broadcasters need only to pay for four days match costs, rather than five, plus their schedules are more freed up for more lucrative limited overs cricket.Evidence suggests that there would be no loss of revenue from broadcasters or sponsors if the Tests were shortened.ConsLikelihood of more drawn matches, especially those that are rain-affected, given that some matches are played in the rainy season.The dynamic of Tests would change and the statistics would be less comparable with history, particularly if limits were placed on the duration of the teams first innings, which has been mooted.There could be more doctored pitches to get results within four days, particularly if allied to increased context.It should not need a shift to four-day Tests to speed up the over rates. Many sides struggle to bowl 90 overs in six and a half hours, so it is unrealistic to think they would bowl many more in a longer day. Any additional overs are likely to be bowled by part-time bowlers.It might lead to more manufactured games, with declaration bowling and cheap runs on offer.The better team would have less chance of winning; the weaker team would have more chance of escaping with a draw.With people increasingly more time-poor, it is unrealistic to expect spectators to want to see even longer days at a Test match. Cheap Air Max 95 China . Oaklands loss to Seattle clinched the ALs best record for the Red Sox with one day to spare in the regular season. "I think everybody was kind of watching," catcher David Ross said. "Demp (Ryan Dempster) came out before he went to the bullpen and was just yelling that they lost. Air Max 95 Clearance Sale . -- Devin Hester is done returning kicks in Chicago. http://www.discountairmax95.com/ . PAUL, Minn. 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India 455 and 98 for 3 (Kohli 56*, Rahane 22*) lead England 255 (Stokes 70, Bairstow 53, Root 53, Ashwin 5-67) by 298 runs Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsThree days into Visakhapatnams maiden Test match, the prospects of England emerging from this contest with anything less than a hefty defeat remain no less bleak than they had appeared at the height of their top-order implosion on the second afternoon.However, this was a day on which their hopes of a fightback in the remaining three fixtures were exponentially boosted, thanks to a feisty series of performances with bat and ball that required Indias champion bowler and batsman, R Ashwin and Virat Kohli, to summon their very best efforts in order maintain their sides dominance.The tone for Englands day was set by a spirited stand of 110 between their overnight pair of Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow, but their fate was eventually sealed by the wiles of Ashwin, who claimed his 22nd five-wicket haul but first against England, to secure India a priceless first-innings lead of 200.Then, after India had decided not to enforce the follow-on, Kohli reached the close on 56 not out, another imperious display to follow on from his first-innings 167, and one in which he was obliged to overcome an exemplary display of incision and experience from Englands senior bowlers, Stuart Broad and James Anderson, whose combined figures to date are 3 for 22 in 14 overs.Indias overall lead by stumps was an imposing 298, and on a surface now offering sharp turn to the spinners and clear signs of uneven bounce, mere survival will be a challenge beyond anything that England have yet encountered on this trip. Nevertheless, given the na?ve hours batting that had condemned them on the second afternoon, this was a response from which is no platitude to admit that they will take the positives.The general assumption before the start of play was that England would continue to stumble against Indias spin-led attack, and Bairstows alarming arrival on the field of play merely sharpened those thoughts. Jogging out to the middle to resume his innings on 12 not out, Bairstow lost his footing as he crossed the boundary line and had to hobble back to the dressing-room for treatment after rolling his ankle.He showed no ill-effects however, turning quickly for two runs in Umesh Yadavs first over of the day to open his account for the day, and from that moment on, Englands sixth-wicket pairing continued in the same prolific vein that they have displayed all year. Between them, they have now made 772 runs in seven stands in 2016, the most by any batting pair.India stuck doggedly to their guns throughout a fallow first hour - arguably too doggedly, with Ashwin initially stymied in a nine-over spell that yielded an early wasted review for lbw and one half-chance for a stumping off Stokes. However, there was little of the threat and penetration that he had displayed on the second evening.That, in part, was down to the quality of Englands batting. With Bairstow working the singles while Stokes interspersed his hugely improved defensive technique with an assassins eye for anything remotely loose, the pair had come within ten minutes of batting clean through the morning session when Umesh produced a beauty, a fast inswinging yorker that crashed into Bairstows stumps via the base of his pad.It was a body blow to Englands hopes of approaching parity but, when Kohli opted to take the second new ball soon after the interval, Stokes and Adil Rashid were ready to take full advantage with an enterprising counterattack.The hardness of the new ball suited Stokes methods just fine, as he clipped Mohammad Shamis second ball off the pads through square leg, before rifling a ferocious pull through midwicket. At the other end, Rashid snaffled three fours in a single over from Umesh, the best of them a scorching cover drive that left Kohli at slip spitting with rage.Sure enough, his sseamers were soon banished and Kohli instead threw the ball back to his senior spinners, who responded with the days most vital breakthrough.ddddddddddddPropping forward to the extra bounce of Ashwin, Stokes was given out lbw by umpire Kumar Dharmasena for 70, even though replays implied that he had grazed an inside edge. No matter - the ball had also deflected into the hands of silly point, so the verdict was correct even if the mode of dismissal was moot.Zafar Ansari did his best to support Rashid, who was accumulating fluently at the other end, but having flicked a well-timed four through midwicket off Ashwin, he was pinned on the back leg as he played round a full ball from Ravi Jadeja, and burned up Englands last review with one of the more futile attempts at a reprieve since the last days of Shane Watson.Broad might have wished he hadnt - his subsequent lbw against Ashwin looked distinctly leg-sided but England had no more recourse to the third umpire. One ball later, however, Anderson had no such doubts as he was nailed plumb in front of middle on the back foot.Englands tail had once again been docked cheaply - the last four wickets had fallen for 30 in 12.2 overs. But, if there had been any suspicion that England were about to surrender the contest and conserve their energy for next weeks third Test in Mohali, then Broad confounded that by bounding in with the new ball in spite of the fact that he was still awaiting the results of a scan on his injured right foot. At the close of play, it was confirmed that he had strained a tendon and, though he will continue to be monitored for the rest of the match, he will be fit to continue.After back-to-back maidens before tea, Broad resumed with the sort of rhythm and bounce through his action that brought images of Trent Bridge 2015 and Johannesburg 2016 swimming into the minds eye.He grabbed two wickets in 25 balls before conceding a single run - both of them overturned on review after initially being given not out by Rod Tucker. Murali Vijay inside-edged a nipbacker onto his thigh, for Joe Root to snaffle with a dive in the slips, before KL Rahul feathered the thinnest of tickles through to the keeper. It was so thin, in fact, that no-one behind the bat was sure thered been an edge, but Broad was convinced, and so too, crucially, was Haseeb Hameed at short leg. His vigorous insistence was enough to persuade Alastair Cook to take a look - something for Kohli and India to consider as they come to terms with the nuances of DRS usage.So out came Kohli with India in a bit of bother at 16 for 2. But perhaps the single most telling measure of his class was his response to Broad with his tail up. Where none of his team-mates had been able to get the ball off the square in his spell, Kohli helped himself to six runs from the first five balls he faced, a flick off the pads for two and a filleted four through the covers.After six overs of Broad, the return of Anderson offered a subtly different challenge, and Kohlis fellow first-innings centurion, Cheteshwar Pujara, was not equal to it on this occasion. After being pushed back onto his stumps by a sharp bouncer, Anderson followed up with an offcutter to open his gate, before completing his three-card trick with a pummelling nipbacker that burst into the top of Pujaras off stumpAjinkya Rahane, on 2, was lucky to survive an edge off Rashid that deflected to safety off Bairstows knee, when Stokes would have been lurking at slip to pounce. But he endured to the close, on 22 not out, a distant second fiddle to the majestic Kohli, who brought up his second half-century of the match from 63 balls. He was playing on a different surface from the rest of the players on display. England, for all their efforts, are unlikely to be allowed to share his private net. ' ' '