s.Its still the same, Ronchi said. It is the umpires decisio

NEW ORLEANS -- The Charlotte Hornets and the New Orleans Pelicans will be on the back end of games on consecutive nights when they meet Saturday in the Smoothie King Center.And both are feeling pretty good after the way the front ends went Friday night. The Hornets (8-3) overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to end the Atlanta Hawks six-game win streak with a 100-96 home victory.At the same time the Pelicans (3-10) were welcoming back Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday in a 113-101 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers in the Smoothie King Center.The back to backs tell a lot about how much you want to win, Hornets coach Steve Clifford said. Thats what the good teams do. You cant run from it.Charlotte didnt back down when Atlantas Dwight Howard threw an elbow at the head of Hornets center Cody Zeller and was ejected with 5:38 left in Fridays game. The Hawks led by three when Howard was called for the Flagrant-2 foul.The Hornets scored the next nine points, including seven by Kemba Walker, to take control.Zeller, a fourth-year forward, finished with 23 points, making 9 of 10 shots from the field.He gets better every year. He gets better every day, Walker said of Zeller. Skill-wise he gets better and he gets better with his confidence. He works hard each and every day to improve his game. It shows every night.Fridays game started a stretch in which the Hornets play 18 games in 32 days. They wont have consecutive days off until Dec. 17-18.This is a good way to start this stretch, Clifford said. If were a good team, the kind of team that we need to be, then weve got to find a way to play a good game on the road and get a win.Getting wins against the Pelicans has been easy for most teams this season, but the Hornets havent won in New Orleans in their previous three seasons under Clifford.New Orleans entered Fridays game with the worst record in the NBA, but Davis had 38 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Holiday had 21 points and seven assists off the bench as the Pelicans won their second consecutive home game.Their record is misleading, Clifford said. When you look at them play they have had a lot of injuries and theyve lost a lot of close games.Davis returned from a one-game absence with a bruised quad and Holiday made his season debut after being away from the team to be with his wife Lauren as she gave birth to the couples first child and underwent brain surgery.I think I did pretty well, Holiday said of his debut in which he had 10 points and four assists in the fourth quarter. It was really just the initial hit of being out there and in the first four minutes or whatever when I need to get a feel for the game. From there, I just felt more comfortable toward the end of the game.Holiday played 21 minutes and coach Alvin Gentry said he plans to gradually increase Holidays minutes but doesnt have a timetable for when his point guard will return to the starting lineup.Its tough for anyone to sit out all of training camp and all of the preseason and also the first 12 games of the season, Gentry said. Its going to be a little bit of an adjustment period for him. The first ball of the 28th over of New Zealands innings took off from nowhere to beat Ross Taylors cut. This, at around quarter past four, was only the 15th ball after the rain break. The pitch had stayed under covers for more than two hours, and was now beginning to misbehave. To make matters worse, Taylor seemed to suggest he couldnt see the ball clearly enough. The next ball nipped back in, took Taylors inside edge and went for four. Taylors eyes widened again and the head shook. Umpire Rod Tucker moved in from square leg, stood on the pitch, used his light metre, and found the light to be good enough.Virat Kohli saw both these occurrences. This new-ball pitch was behaving differently under floodlights for whatever reason, and there was uncertainty in Taylors mind and his eye. Sensing his moment, Kohli removed Ravindra Jadeja, who had broken a partnership just before the rain break. He went to the man who can extract every ounce of assistance from the pitch and expose every bit of uncertainty in the batsman: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who said he had told himself before the start of the match that he needed to take a home five-for now that he had got a helpful pitch. In these conditions Bhuvneshwar knew what to do. In West Indies, at times, he bowled to 8-1 fields without conceding any runs into the leg side. Here, against a better batting unit, Bhuvneshwar asked for a 7-2 field, but the idea was clear - make Taylor play almost everything with the light fading. No easy leaves. The first ball that Bhuvneshwar bowled was on a length, outside off, and Taylor had to play the angle. The seam took the edge, and Taylor walked back shaking his head.Kohli got into the act, got the small crowd that stayed back to keep getting louder and put pressure on the batsmen. With his accuracy and an upright seam, Bhuvneshwar provided the batsmen no respite. Shami kept pounding in aggressively. India knew they had nothing to lose in this little period of play. Whatever time they would get under the lights was a bonus, and their fast bowlers could go all out without having to worry about recovering.Not before long Bhuvneshwars accuracy worked again. In two balls, he removed Mitchell Santner and Matt Henry. New Zealand had lost Luke Ronchi to a rough call, a non-turning delivery from Jadeja that was sliding down leg, to what turned out to be the last ball before the rain break, but this period of play was a body blow. New Zealand had nowhere to go. Even India wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha reached in for a bit of sympathy for New Zealand batsmen, saying the ball started doing things under the lights and that it is difficult to ssee the ball properly when you have just come out.ddddddddddddThere was no ambiguity in what was happening, though. Not in Luke Ronchis mind at least. At the end of day one, the umpires had told New Zealand they couldnt continue bowling pace. New Zealand opted not to bowl spin, and the umpires took the players off. The light metre is just a guideline under the ICC playing conditions, but the convention is for the first reading to become a benchmark for the rest of the match. On succeeding days, there is generally no play when light dips to that reading. It is also assumed that the side batting at that time was made to bat in better light so play cant be called off until the light becomes just as dim.Ronchi was fine with that arrangement. Im assuming it was exactly the same case as it was yesterday, Ronchi said. I think the umpires, when it gets to a certain point of light level or reading or whatever it is, thats sort of like the starting point for when seamers can bowl and when the spinners have to bowl, when you have the option. Whatever it was, it was the umpires decision really.Ronchi was aware of Taylors displeasure with the light, but he said people react differently when they get out. About the two previous deliveries when Taylor seemed to suggest difficulty in seeing the ball clearly, Ronchi said the decision was still the umpires.Its still the same, Ronchi said. It is the umpires decision really. Theres nothing we can do about it. We could say something and make the umpires have a look at it. In the end of it all, it is the umpires decision. So we go with whatever they are saying.Ronchi was similarly philosophical about two rough lbw calls in three innings in this series. Its cricket, Ronchi said. I think I got away with one against Jadeja today (an earlier lbw shout that looked out). You cant complain. Its going to happen lot of times. You get some good ones, you are going to get away with some. You just turn up and keep going along. Keep staying positive and hit the ball like you want to hit the ball and stuff like that. Get as many runs as possible. Thats how it goes.There was only a small bit of ambiguity in the light-metre benchmarks. It is possible that light deteriorated dramatically on day one and gradually on day two. So a marginally better reading on day two compared to that of day one does not necessarily mean that the light was good enough for New Zealand to bat on. That might be just splitting hairs. And as Ronchi said, the final call is the umpires. ' ' '