tense first half. One of them, on Durant, gave h

Yorkshire have expressed their anger at the ECB for not allowing Jonny Bairstow to play in the County Championship decider against Middlesex at Lords. In what is proving a fraught build-up to the match, it also emerged that Adil Rashid will not be available, having requested to be rested ahead of Englands winter.The club issued a lengthy statement which said that Bairstow had confirmed he wanted to play and questioned the reasoning of not making Bairstow available despite it being more than two weeks since he last played.The Yorkshire County Cricket Club would like to express its disappointment after the ECB refused the clubs request for Jonny Bairstow to participate in the final Specsavers County Championship fixture of the season, the statement said.Yorkshire members, supporters and other stakeholders in the game will wonder why this permission has been refused. Having been rested for 16 days since he last played for England, Bairstow said he felt refreshed and wanted to play for Yorkshire against Middlesex at Lords, where the club has the opportunity of winning three successive County Championships, a feat last achieved almost 50 years ago.They made much briefer comment about Rashid who was included in both Englands squads for the Bangladesh tour and will be expected to tour India as well. Adil Rashid has requested to be rested ahead of a busy winter schedule with England, a team-news statement said.Jason Gillespie, preparing for his final match as Yorkshire coach, told ESPNcricinfo: Im obviously frustrated about Rash and I said to him I hope he doesnt regret the decision he has made. But I fully respect his decision. He has played a lot of cricket and he feels he needs a rest.However, in a pointed tweet, Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale, who has been known to let his emotions show, posted: Yes, he wants to rest. Thats his decision. Ill take 11 lads on the field who will give everything to win.Yorkshire have to win to retain hopes of a hat-trick of titles following their defeat against Somerset last week. Even a victory would not be enough, however, if Somerset win against Nottinghamshire and gain one more point than Yorkshire in the process.Bairstow, meanwhile, is not a centrally contracted player - although he will gain a central contract under the new batch announced at the end of the month - but Yorkshire needed the ECBs permission to play him. When Martyn Moxon, Yorkshires director of cricket, approached England coach Trevor Bayliss and director of cricket Andrew Strauss, the request was declined.Moxon works closely with England due to the fact that six players from Yorkshire have represented their country regularly over the last 12 months. Bayliss approach has been to see how the player feels, and this was respected when Bairstow said that he needed a rest after the Royal London One-Day Series.To put matters into context, other centrally contracted players who are soon to tour Bangladesh and India with England, have been allowed to represent their county in critical matches. Bairstow has played five days of cricket in five weeks since the Kia Oval Test match, which finished on Sunday August 14.Bairstow would have been the ideal replacement for Jake Lehmann who has been recalled by South Australia to prepare for their domestic season. He is part of the one-day and Test squads for the Bangladesh tour and is likely to play seven consecutive Tests from mid-October to the end of the India leg shortly before Christmas.Yorkshire have been supportive of Englands rest policy in the case of Joe Root, who is another absentee from the Middlesex clash. The decision to rest Root for the rest of the season was happily accepted in recognition of his weight of cricket across all formats and, even when he was left out of Englands one-day series in Bangladesh, the county made no attempt to persuade the ECB or the player himself that he should play at Lords.Yorkshires 13-man squad does include David Willey and Liam Plunkett, who are part of Englands one-day squad, as well as Gary Ballance who will tour with the Test side.But at a time when the future of the domestic game is being shaped the absence of a star England player for a rare televised Championship match with the title at stake, and the decision of another to opt out despite the importance of the fixture, will lead to further debate about the standing of the competition.Rashids absence means Yorkshires spin for the crunch Championship match will be in the hands of Azeem Rafiq. Rashid has taken 32 wickets at 33.84 in 10 Championship games this season.Middlesex, who are set to have Steven Finn available, have also been boosted by the availability of Tim Murtagh after Cricket Ireland allowed him to remain with the county instead of flying out with the rest of the Ireland squad to South Africa.Mike Modano Stars Jersey . Once again, DeLaet finished tied for second at a PGA Tour stop on the weekend, this time at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The pride of Weyburn, Sask. Esa Lindell Jersey . Team physician Dr. Steve Traina performed the surgery Friday. Robinson was injured in a spill underneath the Nuggets basket during the first quarter of Wednesday nights loss to the Charlotte Bobcats. http://www.thedallasstarshockey.com/jon-casey-hockey-jersey/ . Arsenal failed to take full advantage of its main rivals stumbles on Saturday as substitute Gerard Deulofeu levelled with a hard shot from a tight angle in the 84th minute to give Everton a deserved point. Ahead of a crucial fortnight that will see them play against Napoli in the Champions League, Manchester City and Chelsea, Arsenal leads by five points ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea. Jamie Benn Stars Jersey . "I wrote 36 on my sheet at the beginning of the game," the Cincinnati coach said, referring the yard line the ball would need to be snapped from. Mattias Janmark Jersey .C. -- Todd Fiddler scored a hat trick, including the overtime goal, as the Prince George Cougars survived an 8-7 win against the Kamloops Blazers in Western Hockey League play Sunday.RIO DE JANEIRO -- Gone was the all-offense, all-action play that turned the last two gold-medal games into classics.To get by Spain again, the U.S. Olympic mens basketball team would have to win ugly, so unusual its practically un-American.It was just a real different game today, coach Mike Krzyzewski said.Same result, though.The U.S. advanced to its third straight gold-medal game win an 82-76 victory Friday, another tight matchup between the teams that met in the last two championship games.Klay Thompson scored 22 points for the Americans, who will play Serbia on Sunday for their third consecutive Olympic title. Serbia beat Australia 87-61 in the second semifinal.This is where we wanted to be, Kevin Durant said. We talked about it all summer and to be here for the final game, to win the gold, for all the marbles, we like our chances.The Americans pulled away to win 118-107 in 2008 and held on for a 107-100 victory in London, but the defenses made their mark in this one. The U.S. was just good enough again against Spain, with bodies falling more than shots and several technical fouls keeping the teams from finding an offensive flow.It certainly wasnt pretty, but Olympic gold never loses its luster.Its an amazing feeling now, center DeAndre Jordan said. We really want to accomplish this.It was the lowest-scoring game for the Americans in the Olympics since the 2004 semifinals, when they managed 81 in a loss to Argentina.But Jordan made his presence felt in the middle with 16 rebounds and four blocked shots to go with his nine points.Durant added 14 points on the day he moved past LeBron James into second place on the U.S. Olympic career scoring list. Kyrie Irving had 13 for the U.S.Pau Gasol scored 23 points for Spain, which made it tough on the Americans for the third straight Olympics, but again had to settle for coming close against the worlds No. 1 team.I think the key of the game was their defense, Spain coach Sergio Scariolo said. Their athleticism, their size, they made our offense get difficult during most of the possessions.Gasol said after he believed Spain missed its best chance to beat the U.S.They are not playing as well as other times theyve played, but they are still a very talented team individually, Gasol said. I just (feel) like if we had been a little sharper with our shots, if we would have moved the ball a little better, if we would have boxed out more, and make it a two- or three-possession game, then youre talking about a whole different story.ddddddddddddSpain shot just 39 percent and couldnt get any consistent option other than Gasol, who played with a wrap covering his sore right calf.It was the kind of defense the Americans thought they could play but hadnt much in the tournament. Serbia and France both surpassed 90 points against them and Australia scored 88, as the team with 10 Olympic newcomers took longer than hoped in grasping international offenses.This time they contained a team that was as explosive as themselves over the last four games, as Spain had averaged 97.3 points and won by more than 25 per game after dropping its first two in Brazil.The Americans finally built a comfortable lead when they opened the fourth quarter with six straight points to go ahead 72-57. But Spain was able to keep the gap from getting any bigger and chipped away at it in the final minutes, the margin ending up smaller than in the previous matchups.Spain came to the Olympics an aging team without one of its top players, Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol, who couldnt make it back from a broken right foot sustained during the season. But the Spanish, as they had in the previous two Olympics, found their stride just in time to run into the Americans.Thompson scored 17 in the first half, including a 3-pointer with 26 seconds left that made it 45-39 at the break.Both teams were called for multiple technical fouls in the tense first half. One of them, on Durant, gave him a third foul, as technicals also count as personal fouls in international play. Nikola Mirotic then picked up a personal and technical on the same play later in the period, sending him to the bench with four after he led Spain with 23 points in its quarterfinal rout of France.The Americans were far off their usual offensive play, shooting only 42 percent for the game and complaining about a wet ball in the first half. But they grabbed 21 offensive rebounds in their 24 straight Olympic victory.Now they need one more to stay on top.You want to get there, two-time gold medalist Carmelo Anthony said. You want to have that feeling.---Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney ' ' '