John Gleeson, the former Australia spinner, has died at the age of 78 in Tamworth, New South Wales.Gleeson was Australias 242nd Test cricketer and played 29 matches between 1967 and 1972. He took 93 wickets at an average of 36 with three five-wicket hauls. Gleeson also claimed 430 first-class wickets in a 116-match career between 1966 and 1975, predominantly for New South Wales.Hes sadly passed away in the Tamworth hospital, aged 78, the former Australia captain Ian Chappell relayed to viewers during Channel Nines coverage of a Matador Cup game.Gleeson was one of the early unorthodox spinners, delivering with an unusual action like Australias Jack Iverson before him and Sri Lankas Ajantha Mendis decades later. The folded finger-spinner they called him, Chappell said. He came from Tamworth, started out his cricket life as a wicketkeeper and he fiddled around flicking these balls … I think he started with a table tennis ball, and developed into a very fine finger spinner.I spoke to him the other day, hed come to grips with his situation and his last words were to me, Dont fret, mate, Im in good shape.A late starter to first-class cricket at 27, Gleeson had honed his method for years prior, experimenting with various grips in backyard cricket ater being partly inspired by fellow mystery spinner Iverson. The first time I saw it was a photograph in a 1951 Sporting Life magazine, he said of Iversons grip in a 2008 interview. I would bowl with the same grip with a tennis ball in backyard cricket, with a jacaranda tree as the wicket. It was quite natural for me to bowl a legspinner even if it looked like an offspinner - it was basically a reverse wrongun: looks like an offspinner but is a legspinner.Gleeson worked his way into the New South Wales state side and ultimately the Australian Test team after impressing Richie Benaud in a net session in the summer of 1966-67. He always remained somewhat miffed by the hype that surrounded his bowling style, which was a forerunner to other more lateral methods of spinning the ball that would follow in later years around the cricket world. His path to the Test side was to be smoothed by another net session, in Adelaide where he bowled to the then selection chairman Sir Donald Bradman.He stood there, in his suit, at the batting crease, without a bat. I ran up and bowled. To get the ball to turn a fair bit I had to bowl a lot slower than I normally did, Gleeson said. I bowled him that ball [an off break] and he tried to let it hit the net, but it went the other way, flew up, and hit him on the hip. His eyes lit up and he just picked the ball up and threw it back to me. Next ball, I bowled him the wrongun and then he wasnt quite sure which way to go as he wasnt reading from the hand.James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, said: John captured the imagination of cricket fans everywhere as he bamboozled batsmen with his odd bowling grip, borrowed from another mystery Australian spinner, Jack Iverson.We were deeply saddened to hear of Johns passing and are truly appreciative of his contribution to the game, which, beyond his distinguished playing career, included time as an administrator with World Series Cricket. 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Through two days of the mens tournament, there have been three ties and five one-goal games -- making every chance to attack with an extra player a very precious commodity.Extra man, in this kind of sport, the last few years, this is the most important moment in the match, Aicardi said after he scored four times in Italys 11-8 victory over France on Monday.Water polo has three types of fouls: ordinary, exclusion and penalty. The majority of whistles during a typical match are for ordinary infractions, which result in a simple free throw. But intentionally kicking or striking an opponent, disrespecting a referee or using foul language are among a group of actions that can prompt an exclusion, a player being sent off for a maximum of 20 seconds. The player also can return after a goal or change of possession.Its important, the 6-on-5, but its important for defense, because when you lose control on defense it leads to easy goals and easy goals in these close games, you pay at the end, Italy coach Alessandro Campagna said.Exclusions often lead to momentum swings, either through scoring on offense or coming up with a big stop on the defensive side. Exclusions also can help wear down opponents, since it requires field players and goaltenders to work extra hard to protect the cage while their teammate waits anxiously in the re-entry area in the corner near his countrys bench.I think extra-man attack and defense makes or breaks games, Australia driver Richie Campbell said. If you got solid defeense in extra man and youre shutting them out, then it puts a lot of mental pressure on them as well as the physical pressure.ddddddddddddItaly and France were tied at 1 before Christian Presciutti and Alessandro Velotto scored consecutive extra-man goals, making it 3-1 with 2:20 left in the first. After Thibaut Simons penalty shot trimmed Italys lead to 8-6 in the third, Aicardi helped the silver medalists from London regain control with a goal from in close right after Igor Kovacevics exclusion had ended.Aicardi played with a white mask after he suffered a broken nose during Saturdays 9-8 win over Spain.It worked, he said. I faced one punch maybe and one shot in my face, but everything is OK.Greece and Serbia combined for nine extra-man goals in a 9-9 tie in the first match of the second day. Australia came up empty on a couple of extra-man trips in the fourth period of its 9-9 tie against Hungary. Blai Guell Mallarachs man-up goal with 4:11 left proved to be the difference in Spains 10-9 victory over the winless United States.Weve got to start making stops, said Bret Bonanni, who had four goals for the U.S. We cant let the other team score 10 goals.Playing in front of an adoring crowd, surprising Brazil got five goals from Josip Vrlic and moved to 2-0 with a runaway 16-8 victory over Japan. It leads Group B with four points, followed by Greece with three.Next up for the host country is Serbia on Wednesday night.Croatia, which won gold in London and edged Montenegro 8-7 on Monday night, is tied with Italy for the top spot in Group B. Spain and Montenegro are tied for third with two points apiece.After five games in the preliminary round, the top four teams in each group advance to the quarterfinals.---Jay Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap ' ' '