Predators 5-3 at home on Friday night to make it two straight

It is both an invidious and a beguiling task. The urge to rank things runs deep - in cricket, in sport, in life (though it is perhaps something males delight in more). Inevitably, the impulse to disagree is just as hardwired, a patellar reflex of the socialised human brain. You think that is the best...? In compiling Masterly Batting: 100 Great Test Centuries, Patrick Ferriday and Dave Wilson, assisted by an able band of co-conspirators, have struck up a pub debate liable to exercise pedants, inflame nationalists and, perhaps worst of all, provoke the Twitterati to fresh displays of mandrill pomposity. There could be broken glass.This is no back-of-a-beer-mat musing, however. The authors have come tooled up. The research has been rigorous, their soundings far and wide (former Wisden editor John Woodcock is one of the first to be credited in the acknowledgements). In setting out the projects aims, Ferriday is awake to the difficulty, both rousing and daunting. Ranking the 100 greatest Test hundreds - for that is what they have done, or attempted, despite the enigmatic subtitle - is not a matter of irrefutable fact, but rather falls into the category where no such certainty can bring the debate to a crushing and indelible conclusion. And it is precisely these latter cases that are the most stimulating; opinion is reinforced by fact, fact is questioned, opinion reinforced or, where open minds prevail, altered.The danger of having an open mind, of course, is that your brain falls out. But Masterly Batting should find the thoughtful audience it deserves. The methodology is explained in the introduction, with ten categories - size, conditions, bowling attack, percentage, chances, speed, series impact, match impact, intangibles, compatibility - weighed against each other. The precise formula is not revealed but we can assume it is quite exacting, as there are several tied positions. The prospect of sifting through over 2000 possible candidates would leave many to conclude that pure maths was the only way to go, but Ferriday and Wilson have brought humanity to the numbers by stirring in contemporaneous reportage and the wisdom of numerous cricket judges. The order is, in many ways, subordinate to the higher purpose, which is to collate great cricket writing on great cricket feats. Measuring centuries against each other was settled upon as a valid and achievable goal but the effect is to paint vivid pictures of a different kind of century - more than 100 years of Test batting. This is particularly true with regard to the top 25 innings, which are given extended treatment and take up more than half of the book.Never mind the run-making, the keystrokes are just as impressive. There are some fabulous pieces in the book by a variety of writers, including David Frith, Stephen Chalke, Telford Vice and Rob Smyth. Chalke provides a superb portrait of Herbert Sutcliffe, Daniel Harris on Gordon Greenidge fizzes and crackles with an apposite energy, while Vices essay on Jacques Kallis - He has fashioned one of the great careers with the passion he might have brought to mowing the lawn - is full of good lines. Ferriday himself worships thrice at the altar of Brian Lara, while the comic-book vitality of Kevin Pietersens 186 in Mumbai is another example of the multitudes contained within.The result is richly satisfying, a kaleidoscope of dogged rearguards, effervescent counter-attacking and dreadnought destruction. Absence is what makes the heart grow harder. Each reader will come to Masterly Batting in search of particular favourites, some of whom are bound to be disappointed. No Atherton in Johannesburg, no Dravid in Adelaide? It is the relative dearth of Asian representatives that will cause most debate: seven Indian entries, five Pakistani and three Sri Lankan, plus Mohammad Ashraful. Virender Sehwags 293 in Mumbai is the highest ranked, at No. 15, while Ashraful comes well ahead of Sachin Tendulkar, whose single worthy effort - 155 not out against Australia in Chennai - is deemed great enough to creep in at No. 100. This may seem doubly controversial in the prevailing climate of Sachinalia, although it is interesting to note that a similar exercise in 2001, the Wisden 100, found no room for Tendulkar at all.Perhaps a greater oversight is the lack of Asian voices - Rahul Bhattacharya is quoted in the opening pages, but that is as close as an Indian writer gets to the book. The subcontinent stretches far across crickets globe, however, and this might have been better reflected. On the matter of which innings did and didnt make the cut, Ferriday is happy to engage and he would doubtless provide a sound argument for the inclusion of both Kallis hundreds in Cape Town in 2011 when Tendulkars in the same match misses out.But they are still serving at the bar and argument will continue long into the night. In a publishing landscape that is dominated by turgid autobiographies and glossy compilations, Masterly Batting stands out like a Laxman cover drive. And where does Kolkata 2001 rank next to Bradman on a sticky MCG pitch or Mark Butchers Headingley heroics? Time for me to get my coat.Masterly Batting: 100 Great Test Centuries Compiled and edited by Patrick Ferriday and Dave Wilson Von Krumm Publishing 290 pages; ￡15 Cheap China Shoes Free Shipping Worldwide .ca! Kerry, Two nights after the Scott-Eriksson incident in Buffalo, the Bruins returned home to play San Jose. In that game, Zdeno Chara put a check on Tommy Wingels that clearly targeted his head. Cheap Shoes Wholesale Free Shipping . No. 13-seeded John Isner and No. 21 Philipp Kohlschreiber were among six players who dropped out of the tournament on Tuesday, joining No. 12 seed Tommy Haas and two other players who withdrew on Monday. http://www.cheapshoeschinafreeshipping.com/ . Here are his mid-season NBA awards. MVP: (KEVIN DURANT-Thunder) - Has been sensational this season and more importantly, the most consistent player in the league. Considering that his team has been without star guard Russell Westbrook and with the free agent departure of sharpshooter Kevin Martin, hes had to carry the majority of the load to not only keep his team afloat but more importantly, at an elite level. Cheap Shoes China Free Shipping . Darren Helm scored on Detroits sixth attempt in the shootout and then Jonas Gustavsson stopped Andrew Shaws shot, lifting the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night. Cheap Shoes Free Shipping Worldwide . The Canadian squad, skipped by Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg, got on the board first with two in the second end, and followed that with two more apiece in the fourth and sixth ends. DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings and the Carolina Hurricanes could both be without key players when they meet on Tuesday night.Detroit hosts Carolina at Joe Louis Arena at 7:30.Red Wings left wing and alternate captain Justin Abdelkader missed Saturday nights 3-0 win against the San Jose Sharks with a lower-body injury and he is day-to-day. Detroit coach Jeff Blashill has not ruled him out for Tuesday.Abdelkader has a goal and is minus-2 in five games.Hurricanes left wing Jeff Skinners status is uncertain after he missed practice on Monday but worked out in the PNC Arena weight room.Skinner did not appear to be injured Saturday during Carolinas 6-3 road loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. He was involved in a late scrap with Flyers right wing Wayne Simmonds in front of the benches and each was sent off with a roughing penalty.Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said Skinner was not concussed but the team was waiting on results of medical testing. Skinner is day-to-day and will make the one-game game trip to Detroit.I think hes OK, Peters told the Charlotte News-Observer.Skinner owns two goals and six points in five games and is tied with Lee Stempniak for the team scoring lead.Carolina (1-2-2) has yet to play a home game this season.Peters said the team has given up too many goals but does not blame goalies Came Ward and Eddie Lack.He said the Canes five-man play needed to be better, helping the goalies.We knew we had more skill. Now we have to make sure our wwork ethic is where it was last year, he said.dddddddddddd We had a very hard-working team last year. Weve got to get back to that.The Red Wings are 4-2-0 after winning four straight.Before beating San Jose on Saturday, Detroit defeated the Nashville Predators 5-3 at home on Friday night to make it two straight against top teams from the Western Conference.These two games I think we took steps forward as a team, coach Jeff Blashill told mlive.com. We got to measure ourselves against two real good teams. So far, everybody weve played was a playoff team last year, with the exception of Ottawa, and they look to be improved.The Red Wings defensemen played particularly well in the last two wins and are doing a good job of limiting turnovers, preventing opponents from getting easy chances and getting the puck out of the zone quickly.I think were playing better in our own end, left wing and captain Henrik Zetterberg said. I think were faster. Were stopping them a little easier. Theyre not spending as much time (in Red Wings zone) as they did the first two games. When we do that, we spend more time in their end.Detroit defenseman Mike Green was the NHLs Third Star for last week after his first career hat trick in a 5-1 win over the Ottawa Senators in the season opener at Joe Louis Arena.Green also posted two assists in four games. ' ' '