ersion failures have been dismissals in the 80s, giving them an astonishing 39

PHILADELPHIA -- Michael Vick and Nick Foles are making it tough for Chip Kelly to pick a starting quarterback. Vick was nearly flawless, Foles looked sharp and each player led the Philadelphia Eagles to touchdown drives in a 14-9 victory over Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers on Thursday night. No matter who Kelly chooses to run his up-tempo offence, it appears both quarterbacks can operate this system efficiently. Vick and Foles have combined to put up 28 points on eight-plus drives in two games. "Theyre doing a great job of making it difficult because theyre both playing at a high level," Kelly said. "Were going to make a decision. One of them could sprain an ankle walking in the parking lot." Vick, the four-time Pro Bowl pick, has the statistical edge over Foles, the second-year pro. "I feel in rhythm all the time," Vick said. "The flow in the way we prepare makes me feel I can do it all. I feel like the team can go places." On the opposite side, Newton had a so-so effort against a defence that got picked apart by Tom Brady last week. Newton, the 2011 AP Offensive Rookie of the Year, was 8 of 17 for 112 yards. He played the first half and led the Panthers (1-1) to a pair of field goals. "I thought he did some nice things," coach Ron Rivera said. "He got us down there twice in scoring position. We did miss a couple of throws but he was running for his life twice and both times he overthrew the ball. Im not sure you can put that on the quarterback." Vick completed his first nine passes before throwing an interception on a desperation pass at the end of the second quarter after the Eagles (1-1) got the ball with 24 seconds left in the half. He finished 9 of 10 for 105 yards and also ran for 20. Foles was 6 of 8 for 53 yards. He had 13 yards rushing, including a 7-yard TD scamper. But Foles made a big mistake on his first series when he tried to throw the ball out of the end zone and was picked. "All I can do is correct what I did wrong and improve," Foles said. "Mike is a great quarterback and it makes me a better quarterback going against him. Mike and I have a great relationship. Im happy to see him do well." Through two games, Vick is 13 of 15 for 199 yards, one TD, one interception and a passer rating of 113.1. Foles is 11 of 14 for 96 yards, no TDs, one pick and a passer rating of 65.7. Foles got the start this week because Vick started the preseason opener against New England. He completed his first six passes and crisply worked a no-huddle offence, moving the Eagles from their 5 to the Panthers 8 before things went awry. Foles dropped a shotgun snap, picked it up and tried to throw the ball away but his underthrown pass was intercepted by Josh Thomas in the back of the end zone. Foles threw an incomplete pass on the first play of the next series, then the Eagles kept it on the ground. One play after LeSean McCoys juke-and-go, 21-yard run, Foles ran in from the 7 for a 7-0 lead. "LeSean is a tremendous back and with a little space, he can make amazing things happen," Foles said. Vick completed his first four passes for 43 yards and guided the Eagles to the Panthers 36 before Chris Polk fumbled after an 8-yard run. Vick started his second drive with two passes to DeSean Jackson for 28 yards and then connected with Riley Cooper for 22. Vick then scrambled 14 yards and 6 yards on consecutive plays before McCoy ran in from the 1 to make it 14-6. The Eagles gave a much better defensive effort in their second game. The first unit allowed 50 yards rushing in the first half after getting steamrolled by the Patriots. Newton is 11 of 23 for 128 yards, one TD and one interception in two games. "There are just some things we have to wrinkle out," Newton said. "We were moving the ball effectively. We cant have self-inflicted penalties. It takes a little more focus. And on my part I feel like I can put the offence in a better situation with a couple of throws I feel got away from me. We moved the ball but we can do better and we will do better as this preseason progresses." NOTES: Graham Gano kicked field goals of 47 and 32 yards, and Morgan Lineberry had a 27-yarder for Carolina. ... Phillip Hunt had surgery for a partial tear of his ACL. ... RB Felix Jones (rib), TE Emil Igwenagu (head) and DB Curtis Marsh (hand) left the game for the Eagles. ... The Panthers didnt have any injuries.Pekka Rinne Predators Jersey . -- Gus Malzahn finally had his day in Fayetteville. Ryan Johansen Jersey . The team also announced Tuesday that the Braves will wear a commemorative patch on the right sleeve during the season. The patch, shaped like home plate, carries the number 715, Aarons autograph and a "40th Anniversary" banner. http://www.authenticpredatorspro.com/Colton-sissons-predators-jersey/ .J. Ellis hit two-run homers and the NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Diego Padres 4-0 Saturday night. Calle Jarnkrok Jersey . -- Mike Smith never saw his first NHL goal go in. Custom Nashville Predators Jerseys . The third-ranked Ivanovic, who won the event in 2008 and 10, served five aces and broke Wickmayer, also a former winner in 2009, five times. "The result looked easier than it really was," Ivanovic said.Click here for week one of The Confectionery Stall Stat-vent CalendarSeven more stats for you to unveil, one each morning, instead of looking at a badly-drawn picture of a robin, or eating a disappointing chocolate, or releasing a live and irritable scorpion, if you have been given a prank advent calendar by a lifelong foe.December 8Parthiv Patel is the sixth greatest Indian Test opener in history - if you judge greatness purely by the time between the first time you do something and the last.Parthiv first opened the batting for India in December 2002, when he walked out alongside Sanjay Bangar in Hamilton, in the third innings of the only Test in history in which both sides were bowled out for under 100 in their first innings. It would have been a tough assignment for a 100-Test veteran opener. Parthiv was a 17-year-old wicketkeeper with fewer than 500 first-class runs to his name. If someone had told the teenager then that he would still be opening for India almost 14 years later, he would probably have thought to himself: Well, this is obviously going to go very well indeed. I can confidently look forward to a glorious career of unremitting run-scoring and national adulation.Parthiv was bowled for a fourth-ball duck, and, before Mohali last month, had opened only once more, making 69 in an innings victory in Rawalpindi in 2004, partnering Rahul Dravid in the early stages of his career-best 270.The 13 years and 11 months since the Hamilton debacle (which was also, excluding matches curtailed to fewer than 25 overs, the only Test since 1890 in which no batsman has reached 40), put Parthiv in sixth place on the all-time longest-serving Indian Test openers list. If he can open again in February 2021, he will supplant all-time leader Mushtaq Ali, the legendary stylist from Indias early Test years, whose 16 innings as opener spanned 18 years and a month from January 1934 and February 1952.(The rest of the top five: Sunil Gavaskar (16 years, March 1971-March 1987, 203 innings); Vijay Merchant (15 years and four months, June 1936-November 1951, 12 innings); Navjot Sidhu (15 years, December 1983-January 1999, 69 innings); and Dravid (14 years and nine months, November 1996-August 2011, 23 innings).)December 9Joe Roots 179-ball 78 in Mohali was only the fourth time in his last 32 Test innings (over 17 Tests since November 2015) that he has faced more than 130 balls.He also topped the 130-ball mark when making 124 off 180 in Rajkot. He faced 406 deliveries in his 254 against Pakistan at Old Trafford, and his Johannesburg 110 took 139 balls. In his previous 33 innings, over 19 Tests after his 2014 recall, he had lasted 130-plus balls on 14 occasions.He batted for 130 balls six times in his first 29 Test innings before he was dropped for the final Ashes Test of the 2013-14 horror tour. You may well argue that 130 balls is an oddly random number of balls on which to base a statistic. And you may well have a point. But, as the Confectionery Stalls sole stat-arbiter, I declare that the stat stands. Especially when viewed in the context of the following…December 10 Some time on December 10, England will participate in their 43,104th delivery of international cricket in 2016 - breaking their national record for most balls of cricket played in a year. (Assuming good weather in Mumbai.) (And a match that lasts into the third day.)At this point, England will have played 31,009 deliveries in Tests, 9807 in ODIs, and 2288 in T20 internationals since New Year, breaking a record set way, way back in 2015. By the end of Chennais fifth Test, they will have played around 83,500 balls of international cricket since the 2015 World Cup in all formats, the equivalent of 155 90-over days of actual cricket in just over 21 months.As a bonus multiple-choice question, are the December 9 stat and the December 10 stat in any way related?(a) Yes (b) Probably (c) YesAnswers on a postcard to: The ECB Head Golden Goose Squeezer, Department Of Excessive Scheduling, Cricketsville, England.I would go for (a) or (c), I think. Root is still batting well, still scoring influential runs, still looking like Englands most complete all-round batsman for decades. But have his powers of concentration been slightly dulled by Englands ceaseless cricketing churn?Depending on the length of the final two Tests, England will probably end fifth or sixth in the Most Balls Of International Cricket Played In A Year list, at around 46,000 deliveries, still some way behind Indias 2002 record of 50,826 (in 16 Tests and 35 ODIs).December 11 Since the end of Engglands superb series win late in 2012, visiting batsmen in India collectively have averaged 21.dddddddddddd84 in 16 Tests, while recording a Won 0, Lost 14 record. Indias spinners have averaged 20.22 in these matches.By comparison, when touring the West Indies at its statistical peak-unplayable, from 1984 to 1986, visitors collective batting average was 20.69, and the West Indian pacers averaged 20.77 (a figure bumped up by an almost heroic devotion to no-balls). The challenge currently provided by India in India, then, is statistically comparable to what is rightly regarded as perhaps the toughest batting assignment in Test history. Not as frightening, nor as likely to result in a nasal rearrangement, nor promising a lifetime of harrowing flashbacks of Michael Holding limbering up to come on as second change, but almost as damaging to the batting average.Other inhospitable hosts have provided statistically similar obstacles - for example, Australia and South Africa around the turn of the millennium, Pakistan in the late-1980s and early-1990s, Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2008, when Murali averaged 16 in home Tests, England in the mid-to-late 1950s, Australia in the immediate post-war years. In terms of numbers, India in India in the past four years have been in a similar bracket of statistical difficulty for visiting batsmen.December 12Adil Rashid needs five wickets in the final two Tests to become only the third England bowler since Ian Botham in 1979-80 to take 30 wickets in a winter season.In between these two somewhat contrasting bearded allrounders, Steve Harmison took 32 in 2003-04 (nine in a Test in Bangladesh, 23 in four in the West Indies), and Graeme Swann 37 in 2009-10 (16 in two matches in Bangladesh, 21 in four in South Africa).Few bowlers have enjoyed a seven-Test winter to achieve this landmark, but Rashid already has 25 victims after five Tests. Other than Swann, who took 25 or more in three winters out of four from 2008-09 to 2011-12, the only England spinner of the last 50 years to record a 25-wicket winter has been Derek Underwood, who took 33 in both 1970-71 and 1976-77.Conclusion: You cannot take 25 wickets in a winter season as an England spinner without going on to take at least 250 in your Test career.(Tony Greig took 29 in eight Tests in 1974-75, but how many were with spin and how many with seam is something Statsguru does not reveal. Ashley Giles came close, taking 24 in six Tests in Englands victorious series in Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 2000-01, when he became the first England spinner to have even a 20-wicket winter since Geoff Miller in the 1978-79 Packer-era Ashes.) December 13 During the first 29 matches of their 31-Test 2015-2016 marathon, Englands batsmen have made 46 scores of 80 or more, but converted just 23 of them into centuries.You do not need to be a rocket scientist to work out that this means they have a 50% conversion rate of 80s into 100s. A very basic grasp of arithmetic will suffice. Even excluding the two not-out sub-100 scores, the conversion rate is 52%, compared to 77% in the previous four years, and 69% by all other Test teams combined in the 2015-2016 period.Moreover, 17 of Englands 21 80-plus conversion failures have been dismissals in the 80s, giving them an astonishing 39% out-in-the-80s rate (other teams combined in the same period: 22%; all teams throughout Test history: 18%).If you want to repeat the multiple choice question above, please do so.England players have been out in the 80s ten times this year. One more in the final two Tests of the year will break the all-time record by a Test team in a calendar year, currently shared with the England of 1982, and the Australia of 1977.December 14 Australias 378 for 5 in the second ODI against New Zealand in Canberra on Tuesday was the eighth successive time they have scored 320 or more when batting first in an ODI on home soil.The sequence began with a ritual flaying of England in their World Cup opener at the MCG in February 2015, and they had scored 329 for 5 against South Africa, also in Canberra, late in 2014, meaning that nine of their last ten innings batting first in home ODIs have been scores of 320 or more. They had posted 320 in four of their previous 49 home first innings (excluding two rain-shortened matches). More numerical proof of the statistical trauma inflicted on modern ODI bowlers.Click here for week one of The Confectionery Stall Stat-vent Calendar ' ' '