A year ago, almost to the day, Australia played a dead Test against England at The Oval. The touring team had been through the darkest of midlands valleys in Birmingham and Nottingham, losing the Ashes in a pair of humiliating defeats that exposed the XI as wholly unsuited to the conditions.But with the urn gone and critics sharpening their caustic prose, the team responded with a far better display in that final Test. They were helped in part by the conditions - it is harder to green up the Oval wicket than those of Edgbaston or Trent Bridge - and also by the reduced intensity of a less consequential Test match.Nevertheless, an innings victory was nothing to be sniffed at, and a fitting farewell for the dual retirees Michael Clarke and Chris Rogers, who were soon to be joined on the sidelines by Shane Watson, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson in addition to the already retired Ryan Harris. A key member of the win was Peter Siddle, an older head ideally suited to English seamers yet somehow ignored until too late to make a difference to the series result.Twelve months on and Colombo seems about to bear witness to a similar sequence. The first two Tests have gone conclusively Sri Lankas way, and the pitch at the SSC is the series fairest if also its driest. Meanwhile, the inclusion of Shaun Marsh has added belated solidity to a batting line-up that could have done with his brand of batting when the destination of the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy was still up for debate.Many a cricket follower likes to poke fun at Marsh, he of the near binary home series against India a few years back, then a series-shaping hundred in South Africa followed immediately by a pair in the next Test and omission from the decider. Then there was the day he was run out for 99 chasing a first Test hundred in Australia - moments that have ensured few cricketers can polarise like him now that Watson in particular has retired from the national team.But at the same time, Marsh is the only member of this squad to have in his possession a Test hundred in Sri Lanka, on debut in Pallekele nearly five years ago. The next Test was played at the SSC, and it was Marshs ever-so-patient 81 that anchored an otherwise wobbly top order. Bizarrely, that match was Marshs last Test match in Asia until this week.The horrors of 2011-12 at home banished him from the Test team for quite some time, meaning he did not figure in the squads to go to India in 2013. He was set to go to the UAE in 2014, before an elbow injury sustained in the IPL necessitated surgery and a delayed start to the 2014-15 season. In both cases, Australian results on tour suggested they could have and indeed did do worse by not having Marsh available to use his mercurial talents in conditions where he was less likely to fall prey to bounce and seam.Marshs height and reach allow him a decent stretch forward. His power and timing allow him the ability to generate bat speed and scoring zones when he has little pace to work with. Equally, his vast experience in the IPL has given him a level of accomplishment in numerous attacking strokes to spin, and a courage to use them regardless of whether the ball is turning or not. In short, Marsh has a game that can work in this part of the world, a rare gift among contemporary Australian batsmen.One of the key findings of the Australian tour party on this trip is the fact that top six success at home is no sort of indicator for how batsmen will fare in Asia. Before this match, the coach Darren Lehmann contended that changing last summers combination pre-emptively would likely have met with a cold public response. If you have a look at our summer and the way our batters played, he asked, if we didnt take any of those batters, how would we be viewed in the press?Yet it should be among the first lessons learned by any selector that their job is not to curry public favour but to choose winning teams. Earlier in the same press conference, Lehmann had spoken of the importance of batsmen being proactive, not reactive when spinners have conditions in their favour, a maxim he lived by with great success. Selection for Colombo, also including Moises Henriques as a specialist batsman, was nothing if not reactive.As Marsh accumulated calmly on the second afternoon, looking so secure where Joe Burns had been skittish and Usman Khawaja stranded, it was hard to escape the sense that much like Siddle he had been ignored for too long on this tour. Whether or not Australia have other batsmen at home who may also be able to aid the next Asian assignment in India next year remains to be seen, but certainly Peter Handscomb will have his claims.Either way, Lehmann, Rod Marsh and the rest of the selection panel must start to show their proactive side as a matter of urgency. As former Test cricketers, all are conscious of the gravity of their roles, and of a responsibility not to be flippant. But to badly misquote Oscar Wilde: selecting one player too late may be regarded as a misfortune; to do it again starts to look like carelessness. Wholesale Old Skool . Its the second straight game Bell has scored in extra time for Kelowna, which beat the Brandon Wheat Kings 6-5 on Friday, and he now has four game-winning goals on the season. Discount Old Skool . 4 Villanova with a 96-68 drubbing on Monday. Wragge hit 9-of-14 from behind the arc, matching Kyle Korvers school record for 3-pointers in a game set in 2003, as Creighton (16-3, 6-1 Big East broke a conference record with 21 treys in the rout. http://www.cheapoldskool.com/ . Any real chance at payback wont come until the playoff. Still, Pittsburgh knows its taut 3-2 win over the Bruins on Wednesday night is a pretty good place to start laying the groundwork. "They are a very good defensive team," Penguins forward Brandon Sutter said. Cheap Old Skool Authentic . Giroud, who wasnt in the starting lineup for two matches after allegations about his private life and a decline in form, scored twice in the first half. Tomas Rosickys chip made it 3-0 before half time at Emirates Stadium, while defender Laurent Koscielny scored an unmarked header in the second half. Cheap Old Skool Sale .ca. Kerry, Just watched the shootout in the Coyotes/Leafs game and I have to ask, why was the James van Riemsdyk goal allowed to count? All of the video replays we were shown on TV were inconclusive about whether the puck had entirely crossed the line or not. Hardik Pandya doesnt do regular. Life, king size seems to be more his thing. He is what they call filmy - read: dramatic. Pandya is a showman; look up his interviews on YouTube to watch him explode into a gazillion expressions in less than a minute. He is image-conscious, finicky about brands, and even shares his birthday with Amitabh Bachchan; you wonder why he isnt in Bollywood.Pandyas love for the limelight also means he loves taking on a challenge. In IPL 2016, he had the chance to be play-maker when Mumbai Indians promoted him to No. 3, but the move didnt quite work out. Both his batting and bowling form took a hit, and he was left out of Indias subsequent limited-overs series against Zimbabwe and West Indies. Up to that point, though, Pandya had featured in each of the 16 T20Is India had played in 2016, picking up 15 wickets at an average of 24. He was then sent to Australia with the India A team, where, statistically, he didnt have a great tour, but the selectors had seen enough to bring him back.A few minutes before the toss in Dharamsala, Pandya was surrounded by his team-mates as he collected his maiden ODI cap from Kapil Dev, incidentally 38 years to the day since Indias finest allrounder had made his Test debut. Pandya was in the spotlight again for about 30 seconds. MS Dhoni decided Pandya could bask in it a while longer when he gave him the new ball.Our thinking was to give him a chance to exploit the new ball. The reason being, we all felt, he is quite deceptive - he can bowl quick and he has got movement, Dhoni said. Even on wickets where some of the other bowlers dont get that kind of swing, he is still somebody who can get some purchase of the wicket.Pandya didnt begin well, though, as Martin Guptill took him for three fours off his first five balls. The numbers werent in his favour again, but two of those three boundaries were off edges, and a fourth delivery only just missed Guptills outside edge. Dhoni made note and installed a third slip before the last delivery of the over. Pandya got the ball to swerve in on a length and straighten to find Guptills edge, which went went to second slip.Pandya ttook off in celebration, with arms outstretched, but there was none of his usual vein-bursting screams.dddddddddddd. His only extravagance on the day, in fact, was a pair of sunglasses that appeared to be fashioned after cartoon characters Swat Kats headgear.Pandya maintained good pace, staying between the late 130s and early 140s, and married it with late movement to frequently find the batsmens body: Kane Williamson copped one on the thigh pad, while Tom Latham, who handled Pandya with the most ease, was hit on the box. While Pandya leaked a boundary in each of his first three overs and bled 26 runs - mostly by bowling too full - he made it up by giving away only five more runs in his next four overs.He was particularly effective against the left-hand batsmen, conceding only 18 runs off the 31 balls they faced. Pandya benefited as much from his Test match length as from his new-ball partner Umesh Yadavs accuracy at the other end; together they pinned down the returning Corey Anderson before his attempt to club Pandya was snaffled by a diving Umesh at mid-off.With the first leg of the Pandya experiment having gone well, Dhoni said he wanted to give him a decent run with the new ball. We only have eight games before the Champions Trophy [including the Dharamsala ODI], so we would like to see under different situations and conditions how he reacts and how he quickly he can adapt to the conditions, Dhoni said. Of course, lets say for example, if it is 2-2 and it is the fifth game of the series, then we will obviously try to play the best XI. But, I dont see any reason if he keeps performing the way he did in this game why he cant be our first pick when it comes to the three fast bowlers.Pandya, meanwhile, was back in the limelight when he walked out to collect his Man-of-the-Match award. The characteristic wide grin was in place, but there was no excessive animation, mirroring his manner from the game. It wasnt a bad change to embrace on a comeback. To the new ball then, and new beginnings. ' ' '