Chester Taylor, The Chicago Bears signed All Pro defensive end Julius Peppers and running back Chester Taylor as free agents. These two signings represent not only the largest amount of money ever spent on free agents by the Bears in one day, but arguably one of the biggest offseason days in the franchise’s history.

March 5 is a big day, but the best? Let’s look back at some other candidates for the best non-game days in the history of our Chicago Bears.

Australia 273/ 7 (Hussey 56, White 54, Haddin 53)
New Zealand 253/10 (Vettori 70, Johnson 4-51)
Australia beats New Zealand by 12 runs
Australia won the second One Day International in the five match series and leveled the series 1-1. After winning the toss Australia elected to bat first and managed a reasonable total of 273 for seven wickets. Mike Hussey 56, Cameron White 54 and Haddin 53 were prominent Australian batsmen. Shane Bond and skipper Vettori bagged two wickets each.

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New Zealand run chase was interrupted by rain and play was reduced to forty five overs and the target was reduced to 236 runs. Vettori resisted the Australian bowling attack and scored 70 runs. Michel Johnson managed to grab four Kiwi wickets.
The next match would be played on March 9 in Hamilton.

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Australia secured a six-wicket victory against New Zealand in their opening T20 International match at Wellington, New Zealand. Australia now lead the two match series 2-1.New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first. Black Caps were all out at measly 118 to win. James Franklin was top-scorer with 43, while Martin Guptill contributed 30.Johnson took three wickets. Australia reached their target with 24 balls to spare to complete the comfortable victory. David Hussey hit five boundaries in his 36-ball 46. Shane Bond took two Australian wickets. The next match would be played on February 28.

Pakistan’s chances of winning the 3-Test Series have enhanced with New Zealand’s main strike bowler Shane Bond ruled out of the remaining two Tests. Bond has suffered a tear in his abdominal muscle during the Dunedin Test. The fast bowler was responsible inflicting a 32-run defeat to the Pakistanis in the first Test at Dunedin having taken eight wickets. Bond has managed to play just the 18 Tests although he had made his Debut way back in 2001.

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Shane Bond Ruled out of Tests With Abdominal Tear, Black Caps strike bowler Shane Bond has been ruled out of the Test series against Pakistan with an abdominal tear.

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Bond arrived at the indoor nets at Westpac Stadium on Tuesday, not to bowl, but to outline the latest injury to plague his career. Man-of-the-match in the first Test in Dunedin with a match haul of eight for 153 in his first Test for two years, the injury that forced him out of his previous Test tour in South Africa has resurfaced to leave the downcast 34-year-old coy on his playing future.

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Scans confirmed the tear and although Bond could have played in the second Test starting at the Basin Reserve in Wellington on Thursday, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has taken a precautionary approach by sending him home for rehabilitation before a hopeful return against Bangladesh in February. A replacement will be added to the squad — possibly Tim Southee — while Daryl Tuffey, who is already with the team, could be in line for his first test in five years.

Umar Akmal’s heroic knock of 75 (from 174 balls with 5 fours and a six) went in vain as New Zealand won the first Test in a thrilling fashion by 32 runs. The younger Akmal making his Test Debut dazzled with 129 in the first innings as well but the Pakistani top order failed to stand up against the Kiwi attack. The visitors were set a perfectly chasable target of 251 on the last day.

New Zealand resumed the final day at 147 for 8 and could add up just 5 more runs despite having Grant Elliott unbeaten at the end of Day four. Umar Gul finished the Kiwi innings taking the wickets of O’Brien and Elliott to leave his team a target of 251.

The hosts straightaway had Pakistan on the backfoot  removing the openers cheaply. They got one more wicket in Fawad Alam before the lunch break and Pak was at a shaky 53 for 3 at the break with Yousuf and Umar Akmal at the crease. Chris Martin provided an important breakthrough by ending Skipper Mohammad Yousuf’s stay for 41 and also a 71-run stand. Umar Akmal kept the fight going with Shoaib Malik (32) and the runs kept flowing before the former got done in by a short ball again.

At Tea, Pakistan was at 165 for 5 with the Akmal brothers at the crease and their side hoping for a repeat of their fighting partnership in the first innings. Shane Bond made sure that the Akmals did not run away with the game by taking a return catch offered by Umar to reduce Pak to 195 for 6. That was the moment for New Zealand and they seized it with both ends taking the remaining four wickets for 21 runs. The important wicket of Kamran Akmal (27) was taken by Iain O’Brien.

It was a perfect team effort from the Kiwi bowlers with Bond, O’Brien taking three wickets each while Martin and Vettori taking two each. Shane Bond picked up the Man of the Match.

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DUNEDIN: Pakistan Vs New Zealand 1st Test Day 3 Live Streaming, Mohammed Asif claimed his fourth wicket as Pakistan quickly mopped up the New Zealand tail at the start of day three of the first Test in Dunedin.

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With the Black Caps resuming on 404 for eight, Asif and Saeed Ajmal removed the last two wickets to dismiss the hosts for 429 in their opening innings.

Shane Bond, returning to the crease on eight, managed to take his score to 22 before Asif struck with a deceptive ball which the New Zealander edged to wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal.

His replacement Chris Martin then followed eight balls later, trapped leg before wicket by Ajmal.

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Iain O’Brien was the last man standing for the hosts having added 11 runs to his overnight score of two, while Asif was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers with four for 108.

New Zealand have picked a 13-man squad to face Pakistan in the first Test at Dunedin which begins on the 24th of this month. The New Zealand team is bolstered with the re-entry of Shane Bond who gets to play Test Cricket after a gap of two years!

The hosts are unlucky to miss one of their key players in Jesse Ryder who is still recovering from an abductor strain which he picked up during his stint in the IPL. Ryder’s place has gone to Peter Fulton who has a mediocre average of under 25.00 and just a fifty in the 8 Tests so far in his career. It could be a toss up between Fulton and Tim McIntosh in the end. McIntosh is fresh from a century against Pakistanis at Queensland which could give him the nod ahead of Fulton.

Apart from Bond, medium pacer Daryl Tuffey makes a comeback in the Test team after similar adventures in the rebel Indian Cricket League. Most likely Tuffey could sit out with New Zealand already having Chris Martin and Iain O’Brien in the ranks to partner with Bond.

New Zealand Squad for first Test at Dunedin : Daniel Vettori (Captain), Tim McIntosh, Daniel Flynn, Ross Taylor, Peter Fulton, Martin Guptill, Grant Elliott, Brendon McCullum (wk), Iain O’Brien, Shane Bond, Jeetan Patel, Daryl Tuffey, Chris Martin

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JOHANNESBURG : International Cricket Council ODI player rankings released on Tuesday after Champions Trophy in South Africa:

Batsmen

1. MS Dhoni (IND) 814 points

2. Yuvraj Singh (IND) 766

3. Graeme Smith (RSA) 763

4. AB de Villiers (RSA) 761

5. Mike Hussey (AUS) 754

6. Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WIS) 747

7. Chris Gayle (WIS) 744

8. Ricky Ponting (AUS) 726

9. Sachin Tendulkar IND) 723

10. Virender Sehwag (IND) 710

Bowlers

1. Kyle Mills (NZL) 710

2. Nuwan Kulasekara (SRI) 700

3. Daniel Vettori (NZL) 698

4. Shakib al-Hasan (BAN) 686

5. Shane Bond (NZL) 666

6. Ajantha Mendis (SRI) 652

7. Nathan Bracken (AUS) 648

8. Dale Steyn (RSA) 645

9. Muttiah Muralitharan (SRI) 645

10. Mashrafe Mortaza (BAN) 645

All-rounders

1. Shakib al-Hasan (BAN) 427

2. Yuvraj Singh (IND) 351

3. Jacques Kallis (RSA) 336

4. Shahid Afridi (PAK) 320

4. Shane Watson (AUS) 320

COLOMBO: New Zealand’s pace spearhead Shane Bond makes a comeback to official cricket after two years when he plays in a Twenty20 international against Sri Lanka here on Wednesday.

Bond, 34, regarded as the best New Zealand fast bowler since Richard Hadlee, was delighted to be playing again for his country after snapping links with the unauthorised Indian Cricket League (ICL).

“It’s been a long time coming and it’s something I never thought would happen again,” he said. “It feels like I am starting all over again.”

Bond, who last played for New Zealand in November 2007, hoped he could meet the expectations from team-mates and fans alike on his highly-anticipated return.

“I think I set myself pretty high standards and it is up to me to meet those,” he said. “I always strive to be the best bowler in the world, nothing’s changed there.”

Bond’s fiery pace fetched him 79 wickets in 17 Tests, 125 from 67 one-day internationals and 12 in nine Twenty20 matches till he was banished for his ICL connections.

He was not picked for the preceding Test series which Sri Lanka swept 2-0, and warmed up instead by playing for New Zealand’s ‘A’ team in India last month.

Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori warned against expecting the premier fast bowler to deliver immediate results.

“I can see the pressure building from a distance,” said Vettori. “People are viewing him as a sort of saviour to some recent woes, but I think we need to let Shane relax and build his way back into the team.”

Vettori was confident his team would perform better in the two Twenty20 internationals on Wednesday and Friday, and the limited-overs tri-series also featuring India from September 8.