Robin Smith v West Indies, Edgbaston 1995 Its a myth that England has just discovered S&M. It was on TV often in the first half of the 90s, and before the watershed too. Robin Smith was 50 shades of black and blue on a number of occasions after being assaulted by West Indies sadistic fast bowlers, and he relished every bruise. When he was batting, it was clear why machismo is a near-anagram of masochism. He was addicted to the challenge and the adrenaline rush of a cricketing joyride, and did not care for conventional notions of pain. Whats the definition of pain? he said. Pain for me is blokes I know getting bayonets stuck into their thighs and calves during the Rhodesian war.Yet even Smith had a pain threshold, just about. When he was batting against Courtney Walsh and Ian Bishop at Edgbaston, the bounce was so nasty and unpredictable that Smith wore a visor for one of the few times in his career. He also says it was one of only two times he was in the zone. He made 46 and 41 in totals of 147 and 89 and batted 300 minutes in the match, which was over before lunch on the third day. In total, England only lasted 372 minutes. Smiths captain Mike Atherton, who knew a few things about courage, later said it was the bravest batting he saw during his career.Yet Smith was an indestructible hero with porcelain confidence, and could be brought to his knees by more insidious forms of bowling; he was physically scared facing Shane Warne. In a sense, he was the point at which old and new masculinity meet and, for my teenage self, an introduction to the nuances and complexities of adulthood: the strong, silent, insecure type. There have been few more fascinating cricketers.Smiths insane courage was so stirring that his sheer skill at playing fast bowling is sometimes forgotten; not so much his defining square cut but the suppleness and reflexes that allowed him to jerk away from bouncers like a limbo dancer a millisecond before they reshaped his face. For a young and essentially cowardly England cricket fan, there was no greater vicarious thrill, and no greater hero.Desmond Haynes v India, Jamaica 1983 Batting needs its own inflation calculator. The pace of scoring has increased so much this century that we need a tool to tell us exactly what historical innings are worth. A good example is Desmond Haynes 34 from 21 balls in West Indies stunning victory over India. His scoring rate does not look that spectacular to modern eyes, but it was 22 years ago: at the time it was the fastest recorded innings of 20 or more by an opener in a Test.It sparked one of the great steals, West Indies version of the miracle of Adelaide. At tea on the final day India were 168 for 6, a lead of 165. Then Andy Roberts took four quick wickets and the captain Clive Lloyd told his side to go for the runs, an instruction that verged on the anarchic in the climate of the time. Haynes, usually the relatively sober partner to Gordon Greenidge, went off like a pacemaker, hitting four fours and a six in an innings Wisden called delightful.As word spread around Kingston that something magical might be happening, the crowd grew. That meant there was an appropriate audience for an innings that Viv Richards, despite some extremely stiff competition, regards as his favourite: a storming 61 off 36 balls, made with a broken thumb. West Indies won with four balls to spare. The chase of 172 is still the fastest of over 100 in Test history, and looks pretty impressive even without an inflation calculator.AB de Villiers v Australia, Adelaide 2012 The moment I realised AB de Villiers could do anything was when he did nothing. His monastic 33 from 220 balls, which helped South Africa to an epic draw, was a masterpiece of apparently effortless self-denial. A man who can hit any ball to any part of any ground did not hit a single boundary. At 220 balls, its the longest boundary-less innings in Test history. (Oddly, the fourth longest was also played by a man called de Villiers in Adelaide: Fanie lasted 170 balls for his 30 in January 1994.)We often refer to the oxygen of runs, yet really runs are more like food - you can survive without them for far longer than you realise, but that is rarely evident in a modern culture of impatience and instant gratification. De Villiers showed what can be done if you train your brain accordingly. For his next trick, six days later, he smashed 169 off 184 balls to win the series.Winston Benjamin v Pakistan, Barbados 1988 The word immaturity can have positive connotations too. Ask any West Indies fan who was at the Kensington Oval on April 27, 1988. Pakistan, the only team to consistently stand up to the great West Indian side of the 80s, led 1-0 going into the third and final Test. West Indies proud unbeaten records - 53 years in Tests in Barbados, 15 years in a series at home, eight years in a series anywhere - were about to disappear. In a medium-scoring scrap they were 207 for 8, needing 266 to win, when Winston Benjamin came to the crease.The situation was pretty fraught; Abdul Qadir, exasperated when Jeff Dujon survived a huge bat-pad appeal, had just punched a heckler. Benjamin was 23 years old, playing his fourth Test. His immaturity was a blessing, because he had not fully grasped the significance of what was going on. And even that which he did understand did not faze him. Positive visualisation comes instinctively to the young.Benjamin reversed the usual relationship between junior and senior partner. While Dujon held up an end, he tucked into Qadir, slog-sweeping and straight-driving sixes out of the ground, one of which injured a passer-by. He learned to pick Qadir - kind of. He heard the wicketkeeper Saleem Yousuf say legbreak, googly, flipper, and repeated it to himself. (Qadir became so exasperated by the umpires failure to read his flipper and give lbws that he told them in advance when he was going to bowl it.)It was off a pre-picked googly that Benjamin smacked the winning boundary. He had made 40 from 72 balls in a partnership of 61 with Dujon. He only realised the size of his achievement when he got to the dressing room and found his captain, Viv Richards, in tears. Len Hutton v Australia, Sydney 1946 For such a numbers-oriented game, cricket has always had a keen eye for the qualitative ? perhaps never more so than during this Test. Don Bradman and Sid Barnes both made 234 each in Australias innings victory, yet all most people were talking about after the game was Len Huttons 37 in 24 minutes, an innings drenched in glory. Neville Cardus, in the Guardian, said it elevated a match of mass production and utility to the realms of fine art.It may have been fine art, but it also had cult appeal. Those who saw it talked about it until their dying day; so did many of those who didnt. A young Harold Pinter heard about it on the radio, and it became instant serotonin. Sometimes, when I feel a little exhausted with it all and the worlds sitting heavily on my head, I pick up a Wisden and read about Len Huttons 37 in 24 minutes in Sydney in 1946.Hutton took Keith Miller and Fred Freer to the cleaners, driving and pulling with exhilarating authority, until, off the last ball before lunch, he accidentally hit his own wicket. His innings lived fast and died young. This, wrote Cardus, was a crying shame, challenging justice and philosophy. Many who saw the innings cited Victor Trumper. On this occasion, none were accused of blasphemy. And nobody wanted to look at the data afterwards. 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OKLAHOMA CITY -- Jeff Teague scored eight of his 30 points in overtime and the Indiana beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 115-111 on Sunday night for their first road victory of the season.Oklahoma Citys Russell Westbrook had his fifth triple-double of the season -- as many as the rest of the NBA combined -- with 31 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds, but went 13 of 34 from the field.Teague matched his season scoring high and added nine assists and six steals. He hit two free throws with 4.6 seconds left in regulation to put the Pacers up three.Westbrook hit a 3-pointer with 2.4 seconds left to tie it for the Thunder and Glenn Robinson III missed a well-guarded 10-footer at the buzzer, forcing overtime. Teagues 3-pointer in the first minute of overtime put Indiana ahead for good. With 1:09 left, he converted a three-point play to make it 113-107, and he hit two free throws with 19.1 seconds left for a 115-111 edgeSix Pacers scored in double figures and two of them had double-doubles -- Robinson with 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Thaddeus Young with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Myles Turner just missed another with 15 points and nine rebounds. Enes Kanter added 16 points for the Thunder.KNICKS 104, HHAWKS 94NEW YORK -- Carmelo Anthony matched his season high with 31 points and New York beat Atlanta for its fourth straight home victory.ddddddddddddristaps Porzingis added 19 points and 11 rebounds.Dwight Howard had 18 points and 18 rebounds, but point guard Dennis Schroder missed all eight shots as the Hawks dropped their second straight following a six-game winning streak.Howard bounced back nicely after he was ejected for a flagrant foul Friday in the Hawks 100-96 loss in Charlotte, while Paul Millsap led Atlanta with 19 points and Kyle Korver scored 17.New York played without starting center Joakim Noah because of illness. Guards Derrick Rose and Courtney Lee each had 14 points, and Kyle OQuinn, who replaced Noah, had eight points and eight rebounds.TRAIL BLAZERS 129, NETS 109NEW YORK -- C.J. McCollum scored 33 points, Evan Turner had 19 and Portland beat Brooklyn.Portland snapped a three-game losing streak and extended Brooklyns skid to four.Damian Lillard added 18 points for the Trail Blazers, and Allen Crabbe had 14. Brook Lopez had 21 points for the Nets. ' ' '