The general consensus is that the Marlins will eventually deal with grossly overpaying for ball players whose talents have diminished at a far quicker pace than the length of their contracts.

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The city of Shanghai has been utterly transformed, and development at an astonishing pace has spread far down the length of the Yangzi river, a region encompassing perhaps 300m people.

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But that is only part of the spin bowler's art - and Muralitharan is also a master of the subtleties of flight, disguise, change of pace, line and length.

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For all its great length, it miraculously retains the pace and exhilaration of an iconoclastic essay.

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Australia's opening bowlers Lee and Stuart Clark were full of confidence in the opening exchanges, hitting a fine length and generating pace and movement off the seam as they probed outside off stump.

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Crocker, who beat Phelps to win the world title in Barcelona and took the world record from him at the same time, wanted to take charge from the start and went out fast down the first length, turning inside world record pace at the 50 in 23.59, more than half a second clear of the field.

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