as 10 goals in Rio came from PC conversions -- and it pointed as much to Indias lack of awareness and nous inside the opposition circle, as it had to do with the Belgian discipli

A dry pitch - especially so in the good and full length areas - is set to be rolled out in Mohali for the third Test of the series, which India lead 1-0. Stitched Avalanche Jerseys . The expectation is that it would be spin-friendly, like it was against South Africa last year.There was a time when fast bowlers would look forward to matches at the PCA stadium. There was a time when it was the fastest and bounciest track in the country. Indias current coach Anil Kumble was part of a few of them. He was one of Dion Nashs six victims in 1999, when New Zealand bundled India for 83. Javagal Srinath returned the kindness with 6 for 45 in a drawn game. Courtney Walsh and Kenny Benjamin decimated India here in 1994. The Wisden report read: Only [Navjot Singh] Sidhu was out, but [Manoj] Prabhakar was led off after one over, his nose broken by a ball from Walsh that burst through his helmet grille. That made the Indian batsmen uneasy, especially on a pitch which continued to play true; it retained some bounce to the end and the ball moved in the morningThose days, however, are firmly in the past. The last Test played in Mohali was on a pitch that spun from day one, while in the most recent first-class match, Delhi piled on 495 in their first innings in a drawn game against Odisha..It has certainly gone a lot slower to what it probably used to be in the 90s, Kumble said. But having said that, I am someone who certainly does not give too much importance to the conditions. We need to play good cricket. I certainly believe that we played good cricket, both in Rajkot and in Vizag. Thats why we are 1-0 ahead in the series. We will have to do that again, repeat that again in Mohali, no matter what the conditions are. Like I have said over the years, I think it has certainly gone slightly slower, not necessarily the way it used to be in the early 90s.The cooler climate would be a welcome relief for the bowlers though and there may be some sideways movement in the first half hour, but when there is so little grass on the surface, you cant expect it to do too much for the seamers, said Englands Chris Woakes.As such, both sides may be tempted to continue with three spinners. India certainly had great success with Jayant Yadav, who Kumble felt had a dream debut in Visakhapatnam. As a youngster coming into this team, he showed a lot of character, a lot of maturity although he was playing his first match, in the way handled batting with the lower order.Even in the second innings, batting with Shami and getting those 30-40 runs right at the end showed a lot of maturity. The way he bowled was quite impressive. It really augurs well for Indian cricket that someone who has just come into the team has really shown that kind of a approach.Kumble was also very impressed with the way Indias bowlers have handled their workloads without compromising on their disciplines. It was not easy because they bowled close to 240 overs in Rajkot and within three days, in the last Test match, the bowlers bowled almost 200 overs, he said. Its never easy going back-to-back even if you have five bowlers, but still the effort and they way the responded and the way they went about being very relentless in pursuit to go out there and win was very evident. Avalanche Jerseys China . The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling "puts an end to my dreams of being a top player," the 27-year-old Troicki said in a statement. "I worked my entire life for it, and it has been taken away from me in one afternoon by a doctor I didnt know," said Troicki, whose ranking peaked at No. Avalanche Jerseys 2021 . Defenceman Yannick Weber scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and the Canucks breathed a sigh of relief with a 2-1 win on Saturday night. https://www.cheapavalanche.com/ . Brett Kulak and Jackson Houck of the Vancouver Giants were each charged with assault causing bodily harm on Aug. 18, according to the B.C. court services. Good, but just not enough.These five words could describe the Indian mens hockey teams performance at the 2016 Olympic Games. They did well in the early part of the tournament -- which was not unexpected -- but then showed their first signs of weakness with an inability to finish their pool with a win over 15th-ranked Canada.A win in their last pool match would have taken them into a last-eight clash against Spain, but instead they found sixth-ranked Belgium, who had unexpectedly topped their pool, posting impressive wins over Great Britain and Australia along the way.The quarterfinalIt wasnt that the Indians played badly in the quarterfinal. They took a 1-0 lead into halftime and looked every bit the slightly higher-ranked among the two nations that they are. Akashdeep Singh gave India the lead in the last 30 seconds of the first quarter of play, which they preserved with dogged defending for the next 15.The second half saw the Belgians up the ante, as they started using the long balls and deft deflections inside the circle to good effect. Sebastien Dockier scored from two of those tip-ins, while Tom Boon showed why he has been one of the foremost attacking players in the world with a solo effort of high quality in the 49th minute.Just like that, hopes of making the semi-finals (erroneously, most media outlets and agencies have added since 1980, while the 1980 format was played in round-robin and then straight to the gold-medal game) were gone.Before the last eightSo how did they fare on the whole?They made the quarterfinals, as was expected. The only two teams they lost to in the pool stages are probably going to repeat their 2012 final on August 18, and they made Germany and the Netherlands work really hard for their 2-1 wins. It is a shame that India failed to beat Canada, because it would have meant they would have won three pool matches for the first time since 1984. That itself shows how poor they have been in recent Olympics -- barring Sydney, where they looked on course for a semi-final slot until a late equalizer by Poland in their last pool match.The Netherlands and Germany celebrated quite exuberantly when they won their scraps in the pool stages against India, much like Australia had when they were taken to the brink in the Champions Trophy by the Indians. That is a sign of the respect this Indian team commands and should take heart from in the future.Finishing troublesThere were a couple of key areas where India lost ground to their more balanced opponents. The first and most glaring area was the lack of finishing, something that had been seen as an area of concern when the team was about to bbe announced. Colorado Avalanche Gear. Team selections are always better dissected in hindsight, but when the team scores just three field goals from 29 attempts across six matches, it shows the value that a natural goal-poacher like Mandeep Singh could have brought. Instead, what happened often was that there were terrific passes sent into the opposition circle, but the likes of Ramandeep Singh, Akashdeep and Nikkin Thimmaiah were not sure about who was going to make the charge towards goal. This is one area Indians were found wanting in.India also had lapses in concentration and discipline at key moments. In the quarterfinal, VR Raghunath had to sit out for a green card in the third quarter, and that was around the time that Belgium exploited their man advantage to the hilt and put more players behind the ball in attack. Raghunath was also one of two players who were shown a yellow card and expelled from the pitch against the Netherlands for a minimum of five minutes. His suspension, for an elbow on the Dutch player, was actually for 10 minutes, and though India didnt concede any goal in that time, it showed some of the Indian players havent learnt how to curb their aggression when provoked.Wheres the self-belief? The last aspect which went missing in the last-eight fixture in particular was self-belief. India made only four substantial goal attempts, and failed to win a single penalty corner. This last number was astounding -- seven of Indias 10 goals in Rio came from PC conversions -- and it pointed as much to Indias lack of awareness and nous inside the opposition circle, as it had to do with the Belgian discipline in defence. India had found PC conversions from four sources, and were yet to employ Harmanpreet Singh for the same. Yet on Sunday, all these big guns didnt get a single chance to threaten Vincent Vanasch in goal for Belgium.On the whole, this was the kind of performance Indian hockey fans would have expected at the very least. That they could not improve upon it and now might see that fifth ranking in the world slip further shows that the raw materials are there, but they need a lot more work to be considered effective enough.Some of the older guard may not be around in four years time, when the Indian team looks to reclaim the crown they had last won in a full field of teams in Tokyo in 1964. There will be new stars who will be identified along the way, especially at the Junior World Cup in Lucknow this December.The start of that journey in Rio was good, but just not enough. ' ' '