re an identical tagline with only the city name changed. When I saw the Respect Chicago shirt, I almost laughed. When have people not respected Chicago? Thats about as daring as saying Respect Taco

It was hard to avoid a sense of deja-vu as Alastair Cook accepted that Englands batting had let them down in Mohali.He was quite right, of course. By failing to take advantage of winning the toss here, England surrendered their best opportunity to control the game. On a surface that Cook described as 400 par - and it was at least that - England instead succumbed to 283 all out and surrendered the pitch at its best to an India side who were determined to utilise it.Whereas four England batsmen had scored centuries (three in the first innings, one in the second) on what Cook described as a similar surface in Rajkot, here Jonny Bairstow was the only man to make 50 in the first innings.You need a big score on a wicket like that, Cook said, and we werent good enough to make one. Jonny Bairstow made a good 80, but we need hundreds. The pitch wasnt too different to Rajkot, maybe slightly harder to score on, but it was 400 par and we were below it. We just werent good enough.While Cooks candour is welcome, England have now lost four of their most recent six Tests with batting failures a recurring theme. If the collapses in Dhaka (where they lost 10 wickets for 63 runs) and Visakhapatnam (where they lost 10 for 63) were especially eye-catching, the batting at The Oval (England were 110 for 5 on the first day having won the toss) and here (where they were 87 for 4 before lunch on the first day) was equally culpable.And while they seem to have found the answer to their problem at the top of the order in Haseeb Hameed, Moeen Ali was not convincing at No. 4 (or No. 3 in the second innings) and Hameed is now unavailable for the rest of the series. Moeen and Jos Buttler both picked out the fielder after trying to hit over the top in the second innings - victims of good bowling, for sure, but also a lack of patience - underlining the suspicion that England were still trying to find a way to blend their naturally positive approach with the discipline required for Test cricket.Their struggles against spin are familiar, too. While the pitches in this series have deteriorated and turned a little, there has been none of the extravagant assistance that some anticipated. Instead, on perfectly reasonable surfaces, England have struggled to deal with an accurate, disciplined spin attack who have exposed some flawed techniques and uncertain temperaments.Cook was criticised for his theyre no supermen comments after the Visag Test (some even suggested he was taunting India), but he came very close to repeating those remarks here.There were not magic balls, he said of Englands second innings struggle. Maybe Jonny Bairstow was the only one that was a good piece of bowling, but apart from that there wasnt a huge amount misbehaving from the pitch. It was good accurate bowling, as you expect from India in these conditions, but not unplayable. You can talk all you want but the top order have to go and deliver.While the phrase the only one that was a good piece of bowling in unfortunate - and almost certainly a reflection of a lack of eloquence more than a lack of grace - there is a valid point in there somewhere. Cook, for example, missed a 46 mph delivery that turned about one degree. Moeen and Buttler fell to sucker punches. It was soft cricket that was thrown into its proper perspective by a 19-year-old with a badly broken finger. His teammates were, quite rightly, proud of his performance: one or two of them might have felt it contrasted with their own.Ultimately, professional players have to take responsibility for the way they play. They have to make their choices and live by the results. But these are the times that coaches also earn their keep and there have been times of late when it has been unclear what Englands approach is meant to be: are they blocking their way to safety - as they attempted in Visag - or trying to counter-attack to success, as they showed, in fits and starts, here. Both options are reasonable, but a lack of confidence in their defence has been a feature of several of these batting failures. England have usually preferred aggressive players to defensive ones - consider the selections of Ben Duckett, for example - and here picked an excellent limited-overs players (Buttler) who had played just one first-class game in the previous year. There is not a lot of evidence to suggest this aggressive approach is working.Perhaps the brief holiday they will have now is well-timed. Several of the squad will travel to Dubai for a few days, with no formal training planned. It will mentally give us a break from cricket, Cook said. We can come back more refreshed.Cook also admitted England may have erred in their selection for Mohali. The presence of a third spinner - and a second off-spinner, in particular - was superfluous, with Cook suggesting the option of a fourth seamer would have been more beneficial.All of us probably misread the pitch, Cook said. we thought it was dry and would spin more. If we had known what we do now, we would have gone four seamers two spinners. The seamers were always in the game with reverse and the way we bash length, we can control the scoring rate very well.That does not necessarily mean that England will play four seamers in Mumbai. As well as injury concerns over seamers Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes, England hope to have Zafar Ansari, the left-arm spinner, available for selection again and expect that surface may provide more assistance to spinners. The last time England played a Test there, in 2012, Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann shared 19 wickets between them. Cheap Blackhawks Jerseys .Y. -- Sabres defenceman Tyler Myers had no intention of changing his hard-hitting style before taking part in a disciplinary hearing for his illegal check to New Jersey forward Dainius Zubrus head. Fake Blackhawks Jerseys . Just not the game. Kyle Palmieri scored two straight goals in the third period to rally the Anaheim Ducks past the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 on Tuesday night. https://www.cheapblackhawks.com/ . Pirlo limped out of Sundays 1-0 win over Udinese after just 13 minutes. Juventus says Pirlo underwent tests on Monday which revealed he has "a second-degree lesion to the collateral medial ligament in his right knee. Blackhawks Jerseys China . It was Kerbers third final of the year after losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in Monterrey in April and to Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic in Tokyo two weeks ago. The 10th-ranked German improved her record in finals to 3-5. Blackhawks Jerseys 2021 . The lawyers filed a 33-page amended complaint Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, expanding on the suit originally filed Oct. 3 in New York Supreme Court. Arbitrator Fredric Horowitz last week refused to compel Selig to testify in the grievance, and Rodriguez then walked out of the hearing without testifying. This season, baseball historian Bill Savage has been contributing a Chicago Cubs fans perspective from his seats at Wrigley Field in a column called The View From Section 416. For the World Series, Cleveland Indians fan and baseball writer Susan Petrone has joined the party and will write The View From The 216 -- aka Clevelands area code.Its been a strange and heady year here in Believeland. If you live in the 216, its a fine time to be alive. Were currently grooving on the Indians in the World Series. The wind off Lake Erie smells of hope and energy. It started this past summer when the Cleveland Cavaliers won the citys first major sports championship in, like, forever, and has carried right on over into October. The idea that the Cleveland Indians are playing in the World Series right now and that they havent been swept but could actually win this thing, is simultaneously overwhelming and joy-inducing.The only problem is, its a little lonely. Judging from the news and social media, it appears that just about everybody outside of Northeast Ohio is rooting for the Chicago Cubs in the Series. In a way, its understandable. The Cubs have lost for so long and in so many ways that a sort of mythology has sprung up around their epic World Series drought. Embracing the lovable losers has become almost, well, cute. Cleveland, on the other hand, has lost not only baseball games but population and jobs over their 68-year-drought. We have learned that losing isnt cute or cuddly.People are hesitant to cheer for the Cleveland Indians for any number of reasons. To put it in human terms, if my city were a person, shed be the funky chick hanging out on her own, moving on the periphery of the cool crowd. Shes the one who sometimes tries too hard to act cool. She can be defensive when she thinks shes being insulted, probably because she has been given a lot of grief in the past just for being her. And then theres her tattoo. Somebody said she got it a long time ago and knows its horrible. Shes still gathering up the courage to get rid of it. Some of the popular kids whove talked to her one-on-one thought she was really cool, fascinating, beautiful even, but theyll never say so. Nobody will admit to actually liking her.And it seems that nobody will admit to actually liking the Indians. Im not asking you to buy season tickets here, just to give them a chance. Why should you get behind Cleveland?Getting behind the underdog is an American tradition The Cubs have a $186 million payroll and a near-perfect roster of marquee players. By contrast, the small-market Indians have a $114 million payroll and maybe two guys and one pinkie that anyone outside of the city has ever heard of. On paper, Cleveland is grossly overmatched. Nobody thought theyd make it past the American Leaggue Division Series, much less all the way to the Fall Classic.ddddddddddddBut here they are. In a World Series of baseballs two perpetual underdogs, were the underdogs.They keep finding unusual ways to winIf youre reading this, you probably already know the litany of injuries. The Indians were without their most productive hitter (Michael Brantley) for most of the season. They were without their regular catcher (Yan Gomes) for most of the season. They entered the postseason with two-thirds of a starting rotation. They won Game 3 of the American League Championship Series despite losing their starting pitcher in the first inning because he was bleeding all over the ball. They clinched the ALCS with a rookie making his second major league start on the mound. Terry Francona is reimagining the way modern managers use their bullpens on the fly. Who does this sort of thing? Dont you want to see what theyll do next?Cleveland needs this more Lets start this with a question. Ask 10 people where theyd rather live: Cleveland or Chicago? Lets start with you, would you rather live in Cleveland or Chicago?Its okay that you said Chicago. Were used to that.For Cubs fans, this World Series is about winning baseballs ultimate title. In Cleveland, the World Series isnt just about baseball. We dont have the luxury of a second major league team. Our football team has never won a Super Bowl. Chicagos basketball team alone has won more championships on its own than our entire city has won in the three major sports in the Super Bowl era. Chicago has never been the punchline to a stale joke.By now Im sure youve seen the MLB-sanctioned T-shirts for the postseason. They feature an identical tagline with only the city name changed. When I saw the Respect Chicago shirt, I almost laughed. When have people not respected Chicago? Thats about as daring as saying Respect Tacos. Now a T-shirt exhorting you to Respect Cleveland? Thats a bit more challenging, isnt it?We are a small market city. The national narrative about this World Series is still focused on the Cubs. Even when the small market team wins, the rest of the world doesnt say Cleveland won. Instead, people wonder how the big market team lost. Even if the Indians win it all this year, the national headlines wont read: Cleveland wins World Series. Theyll read: Chicago Cubs fans continue to suffer. By cheering for the Indians, you will help to subvert the dominant paradigm.Think about getting behind them. You dont need to buy the Respect Cleveland shirt. But call up that funky chick and ask her to hang out. Get to know her a little bit. Show her some respect. And root for her in the World Series. ' ' '