Foto-Album » Wahab was trying to scuff the ball up by

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- The biggest change for newly crowned Formula One champion Nico Rosberg this year was staying calm despite his often turbulent relationship with rival Lewis Hamilton.Rosberg won his first F1 title on Sunday to end his Mercedes teammates bid for a fourth title overall. Hamilton won the race itself but Rosbergs second place was enough for him to finish five points ahead in the standings.The German driver focused on himself the whole season, not allowing the frustrations of his rivalry with Hamilton to unsettle him.For sure its a key ingredient as to why Im here now. Its the approach Ive taken, Rosberg said. Ive really learned to focus hard. It takes a lot of sacrifice to stay so focused for the whole year.When Hamilton sealed last years title with three races to go at the United States GP in Austin, Texas, he made a dismissive gesture toward Rosberg.The three podium finishers each get a cap: with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd written on them. Race winner Hamilton tossed Rosbergs second-place cap toward him with barely a glance in his direction, let alone consoling words.Rosberg reacted by tossing it straight back at Hamilton even quicker than it had arrived.Hamiltons gesture appeared to be one-upmanship, goading right at the precise moment when his teammate was utterly dejected.Austin was a horrible experience for me, Rosberg said.But getting so irritated that day merely exposed his frustration to the watching world, while Hamilton smiled serenely.Rosberg showed far more mental strength this year.Even at pre-season testing in Spain, he seemed different. Less edgy, less verbose, and quietly determined to turn his fortunes around.All season long he has repeated the mantra of taking it one race at a time.The clich? from one of the more eloquent drivers became a force field, helping him to block everything else out and stopping him looking too far ahead or thinking too much about Hamilton.Publicly, at least, he spoke about Hamilton like he would any other driver, rather than the rival haunting his title dreams.There have been tensions this year.They crashed on the final lap in a dramatic end to the Austrian GP in early July, when Hamilton was desperately trying to overtake Rosberg. It followed a similar incident on the first lap at the Spanish GP in mid-May -- although both went out so neither gained points.But after what happened in Austria, both were warned by Mercedes that they risked having team orders imposed on them.Mercedes had seen this before in 2014, when their drivers feuded at the Monaco GP and the Belgian GP.Tensions were still apparent heading into the final race of 2014 in Abu Dhabi. Before that years title decider, Hamilton was asked if there was something he could do to ensure a clean race. He said there was not.In a flash, Rosberg snapped at the British driver: Yes, Lewis can do something to keep it clean, which is drive cleanly himself.It was Rosberg once again rising to the bait.But after this years incidents, Rosberg reacted in a low-key manner, noticeably steering away from score-settling.Even in the days before this race, Hamilton was stepping up the mind games, repeating that he thinks he has been the better driver this year and consistently bemoaning his bad luck with engine problems.If Hamiltons intention was to dominate the pre-race news conferences before their latest title decider, then he won hands down.But Rosberg was clearly not interested in engaging in a war of words and, while Hamilton hogged the limelight with his audacious statements, Rosberg sat next to him, cupping his chin on his hand, visibly detached as he looked away into the distance.If Hamiltons intention was to undermine Rosbergs composure, then it failed.Their rivalry goes back to when they were racing karts against each other as teenage friends and shared rooms together at races.The two 31-year-old drivers are contrasting characters.The jet-setting Hamilton has always loved to travel, often using his bright-red Bombardier Challenger private plane.He has a taste for the high life, with high-profile friends in the music and fashion industry such as singer Rihanna, designer Stella McCartney and model Gigi Hadid.In contrast, Rosberg, who has a young daughter with his childhood friend and wife, grows and eats his own vegetables. 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On a day filled mostly with qualifying matches, fifth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain also entered the second with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 win over Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia, while Guido Pella of Argentina defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 7-6 (6), 6-4 to advance. Ray Schalk Jersey . LOUIS -- The New Orleans Saints looked like a team playing out the string. Plan A: Yasir takes ten wicketsMisbah-ul-Haq finds Yasir Shah, sets a fairly defensive field with a couple of catchers, some protection, and then winds him up and lets him go. That was supposed to be how it worked.But Yasir did not contain, there was no bamboozle, and he often did not land the ball where he wanted it.Often he dropped short. Not often for a normal legspinner in the park, or a standard legspinner in first-class cricket, or even Test-quality legspinner, but often for him. On eight occasions he bowled long hops, seemingly almost as many as he had bowled in his previous 13 Tests. That made Alastair Cook and Joe Root feel like they didnt have to be as cautious off him. At one stage Root played a slog-sweep, the same shot that got him out at Lords, and this time, he smashed it with complete dominance and control. Whatever the hold Yasir had over England at Lords seemed to have been smacked off with this shot.Yasir bowled with new and old ball, over the wicket to regular fields, around the wicket to attacking fields, around the wicket to defensive fields, tried both ends a couple of times each, tried bowling with only three men on the off side, changed plans all day, and one stage he was trying so many things he metamorphosed into Azhar Ali.Yasir still tweaked his shirt shoulders, licked his fingers, stuttered over his first step, charged to the crease, had a high-arm action and bowled all day. It just didnt work.Before the Test Misbah said, If they play Yasir well we should have other plans. They did play him well, and Pakistan didnt have another plan.Plan B: Take new-ball wicketsMohammad Amir and Rahat Ali are new-ball bowlers. Their skills work best when the ball is fresh, they can both swing and seam it.Today the first new ball took one wicket. That it was a peach of an inswinger that made Alex Hales look like a confused bowler with a bat in hand was nice, but it wasnt enough. Their job has to be to saw off the top of the batting order - Amirs main job in this team should really be taking the wicket of Cook. While the entire world was looking at the other end at Lords, it was Rahat that took the three wickets at the start of the final innings. Here, his first new-ball wicket was when the score was over 300, from a bit of a dirty chop on.There will be days when this is Plan A, and the only plan they need. But here they were loose. Not terribly, but neither bowler, despite their wickets so far,, has really controlled the ball well in the UK.dddddddddddd They havent maintained pressure for long enough periods. Against struggling English batsmen that matters less. Against Root and Cook, it matters lots.Plan C: Reverse swingThere was a time at Lords when Wahab Riaz seemed to have a left arm made of doom. The ball wasnt reverse swinging, it was reverse booming. At Old Trafford, Pakistan needed their middle-overs enforcer to take the pressure off Yasir, even if it was just for a few overs, and make up for the fact that the two new-ball bowlers couldnt break through enough.Instead the ball didnt reverse swing. Especially not for Wahab.It did, if you want to be entirely accurate, at times reverse fade. It wasnt gun barrel straight, it had the slightest kink. But it wasnt Wahab who used it, it was Amir, who took the edge of James Vince (before Younis Khan missed his third chance of the series) and Rahat who took the edge of Vince again.It wasnt an explosion of Pakistan fast-bowling power, it was a couple of decent spells with the old ball that produced a wicket.Reverse swing is still more art than science. Some blamed recent concerts by Beyonce and Rihanna for a softer outfield, which is more speculation than evidence. Wahab was trying to scuff the ball up by bowling it into the wicket. He probably didnt do much different to the last match when he turned the ball into a heat-seeking missile, its just that this time the ball didnt swing. And it meant that instead of enforcing, or inspiring, he was largely a stock bowler with no wickets.Plan D: A mysteryAzhar and his four Test wickets is probably not a plan. Getting Mohammed Hafeez tested and hoping his action is legal again between Tests is more hope than plan. Bowling to ultra-defensive fields and boring England out is a plan, if Cook and Root arent already batting. Catching all their chances could be a plan. Drying up runs through continued pressure and no poor balls might be a plan.But really, if they are going to win, Amir and Rahat need to take more wickets with the new ball, Yasir needs to regain his control and Wahab needs to reverse the ball savagely. You can have plans D through to Z, but when you come up against Root and Cook on a decent batting pitch, you need your best to be at their best. This time they werent. ' ' '