The conversation wandered, and Riffat looked meaningfully at Husna once or twice.
Osi Umenyiora, their premier pass rusher before Pierre-Paul (16.5 sacks for the season) burst out, returned after a four game hiatus (due to a high ankle sprain) and looked downright fierce, sacking Romo twice.
Menez twice had shots blocked but Fulham looked dangerous on the break.
And Hull looked in the clear too when they struck twice more.
Worse, having scored only four league goals away from home all season, the chances of scoring twice to turn the match around looked remote.
The Russian looked rust in the first set and her serve was broken twice by Jovanovski, one of the brightest prospects on the women's tour.
Smith top-edged Broad to James Foster, who had to dive to take the skier, and Herschelle Gibbs looked out of sorts - and could have been run out twice.
England's last victory over the Wallabies, in the 2007 World Cup, was based on them scrummaging Australia into the ground and as they twice cut the gap to four points in the second half it looked as though a similar result was on the cards.
Macklin was throwing plenty but looked a little over-eager and almost paid the price when he was caught twice coming in midway through the third.
And although he scored twice in the Reds' 2-0 win over Chelsea in November, Torres looked a forlorn figure under previous Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson.
Djjokovic, urged on by a partisan home crowd, looked headed for a routine win as he took the opening set, but he was broken twice in the second as Isner leveled.
CNN: Djokovic beats Isner in marathon as Serbia reach last eight
The away side looked to be cruising to their 16th win on the trot, when giant Bradford prop Paul Anderson crossed twice in the final eight minutes of the half.
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