- Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav are reasonably quick in

RIO DE JANEIRO -- The Paralympic Games opened Wednesday with 4,350 athletes demonstrating first-hand their creed: The heart knows no limits; everybody has a heart.Wheelchair daredevil Aaron Wheelz showed the spirit in the opening act.As a countdown from 10 reached its end, Wheelz raced down a giant ramp and somersaulted in the air through a giant 0 on the stadium floor. That finished the countdown and shattered more stereotypes about what athletes with disabilities can do.The president of the International Paralympic Committee, Philip Craven, made a similar point with his speech. Craven, who lost the use of his legs in a rock-climbing fall at the age of 16, reminded Brazilians they have their own problems to overcome.Craven suggested Brazilians follow the lead of Paralympians.In a country which has faced major challenges of late, Paralympians will switch your focus from perceived limitations -- to a world full of possibility and endless opportunity, Craven said. They will surprise you, inspire and excite you, but most of all they will change you.Brazil is mired in its worst recession in generations. The country just removed its elected president, and these games needed a government bailout of almost $80 million to make it to the starting line.Craven also used the theme of inclusion, topical in a country often separated by the rich and poor, and black and white; a country with few provisions for wheelchairs or anyone with an impairment.Show the world that there is no them, there is only us, Craven told the capacity crowd at the opener. A world where people of all abilities, races, nationalities and sexualities can come together as one. We are all part of one world.The symbolic cauldron was lit by Brazilian swimmer and wheelchair user Clodoaldo Silva as rain fell. The six-time gold medalist faced a flight of stairs and looked perplexed about what to do next. The staircase then opened, exposing a ramp leading to the cauldron. Problem solved.Silva received the torch after a number of athletes carried it in the stadium. Among them was former Brazilian Paralympic medalist Marcia Malsar, who wobbled and fell over backward as she carried the torch across floor with aid of a cane. Malsar got back up, with some assistance, and finished her roughly 30-meter section of the relay in an effort warmly acknowledged by the crowd.The show featured a tribute to the wheel, to Brazils swirling samba rhythms, and to the beach -- a ritual gathering spot in Rio. And there was the cast applauding an imaginary sunset, another ritual in this beach town.The show also saluted Brazilian swimmer Daniel Dias, the countrys most decorated Paralympian with 10 gold medals -- and surely more to come in Rio.Organizers say tickets sales have been booming. Only 200,000 were sold a few weeks ago, but theyve now sold 1.6 million. The goal is 2.4 million. This is partly a result of the reasonable prices for many tickets, only 10 Brazilian reals ($3).A notable absentee was International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.The IOC chief said he had to miss the ceremony to attend a state mourning ceremony in Germany for Walter Scheel, the former West Germany president.Craven told reporters its the first time since Salt Lake City in 2002 that an IOC president had missed a Paralympic opening.Patrick Hickey, a high-ranking IOC member from Ireland, was among 10 people charged by Brazilian prosecutors on Tuesday with ticket scalping, conspiracy and ambush marketing related to last months Olympics.Police investigators said they wanted to speak with Bach about email exchanges he had with Hickey related to ticket allocations for Ireland. Police had planned to summon Bach if he came for the opening ceremony, though there is no evidence he knew about the ticket scam.Also missing were 267 Russian athletes who were banned because of alleged state-sponsored doping. Officials say 159 nations were entered on Wednesday, and in addition a refugee team.Rio 2016 organizing committee chairman Carlos Arthur Nuzman, Craven and -- loudest of all Brazil President Michel Temer -- were jeered. Nuzman and Craven when they thanked the Brazil government.Temer opened the games officially and, as he was in the Olympics when he was only the acting president, was jeered by fans chanting Fora Temer -- Out Temer.Temer took over as president after Dilma Rousseff was removed from office on impeachment charges a week ago by the federal senate.---Stephen Wade on Twitter: http://twitter.com/StephenWadeAP . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/stephen-wade 108.5 R Ashwin to Ben Stokes - pitch explosionThis was the first ball of the game that took a piece of the pitch after landing. The ball hit the edge of one of the cracks on a good length, right in front of the batsman. The cracks running right through the 22 yards have opened up a little from the first day and this ball was a sign of the edges crumbling a little. That puts England in a commanding position.Reverse swing and the off-stump trap for left-handersThe thing with reverse swing is that it allows you to both take wickets and, if needed, stop the flow of runs. India tried that with Ben Stokes, with both seamers bowling from around the wicket. India had set a 7-2 off-side field and bowled an 8-10th-stump line to him, and it not only stemmed the flow of runs but also produced two outside edges. As a batsman, Stokes had two options - he could either leave everything alone or walk across to get closer and drag it towards the leg side. Now, you might ask why the same does not apply to right-handed batsmen. The reason is that when the ball is reversing, it tends to tail back in more as compared to leaving the right-hander, and that makes it tougher to set an off-side trap.Yorkers - conspicuous by their absenceThe ball has reverse swung quite appreciably in this game, but we have not seen many attempts from the bowlers to bowl yorkers. During the last series, Zaheer Khan told me that you nneed either the extra pace or some reverse swing to attempt hitting the blockhole.dddddddddddd The Indian fast bowlers were fortunate enough to have both in this innings - Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav are reasonably quick in the air and both were extracting considerable reverse swing. So it was slightly surprising that they did not attempt more yorkers. The angle of attack to StokesAgainst the pacers, Stokes scored most of his runs through the leg side. Whenever Indias seamers bowled outside off, they were able to keep him quiet. So, was there a case for bowling more in that channel outside off and also trying to go over the wicket more to use the natural angle taking the ball away from him? Indias fast bowlers did not go over the wicket even once to him.Making an open stance workTheres been a lot of talk about Gautam Gambhirs new stance and the challenges it is likely to pose. With the new, very open stance, a couple of things that Gambhir must be careful about are his judgment of where his off stump is and avoiding the temptation to play booming drives to full balls outside off. Thus far, Gambhir has shown both the patience and the judgment - he has left balls in the fifth-stump channel and allowed the full balls to come to him instead of going towards them. ' ' '