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Nathan Lyon: Love at first spin?

1st September, 2011
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Roar Guru
1st September, 2011
12
1081 Reads

Fortune favours the brave but also sometimes the naive. Whichever Nathan Lyon is, he deserves all the credit he gets for his five-wicket haul on debut.

Granted, it is a favourable pitch for spinners in Galle. Well, favourable is a bit of an understatement.

There are parts of the Sahara Desert, that aren’t as dusty as this pitch and you know the ball is going to turn square when a spinner is introduced in the seventh over of a Test Match (Sri Lankan left-armer Rangana Herath, who then proceeded to dismiss Shane Watson with his first ball).

In claiming his 5 for 34, Lyon tossed the ball up, put it in good areas and drew the impatient Sri Lankan batsmen into mistakes.

Exactly the type of thing your off-spinner should be doing on a pitch like the one in this first Test.

Those attributes in themselves, whether as a result of bravery or naivety, are worth praising.

Lyon was not overwhelmed in the cauldron of his Test debut. He looked comfortable and confident and reaped the benefits of executing the basics in favourable conditions.

Lyon, an Adelaide Oval groundsman when he was first drafted into the South Australian side, was complemented well during the first innings at Galle, by the nagging line of fellow debutant Trent Copeland, the economy of Ryan Harris (who was about as expensive as bargain bin wrapping paper) and the timely wicket-taking of Shane Watson.

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Australia also fielded well. In particular, their catching was excellent.

Lyon put an exclamation point on that with a stunning caught and bowled for Sri Lanka’s 10th wicket. Young Nathan hadn’t been that horizontal since he got out of bed that morning.

To Sri Lanka’s credit, they fought well in Australia’s second innings and got two early wickets to have Australia two for five.

Coming to the crease, in this tricky predicament was Michael Clarke. The new Test captain proceeded to bat the best he has in 18 months (which I realise is not saying much considering a cardboard cut-out of Clarke potentially could have averaged more than the real Clarke has in that time) and compiled an enterprising innings, full of elegant strokeplay and quick footwork to the spinners.

Unfortunately, on 60 Clarke disappointingly got out attempting a hoick reminiscent of a club cricketer aiming for ‘Cow Corner’.

That then triggered a mini-collapse late on day two.

Despite this, thanks to the bowlers, Australia are still in the box seat in the first Test.

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Six down for 115 overnight, the Australians are 283 runs ahead. The spearhead of the attack (yes I’m anointing Lyon the spearhead, at least for the rest of this match) will have a big part to play in the final innings.

It will be interesting to see if the off-spinner can rise to the occasion again.

On first impressions, it appears Australia may be 11th time lucky in their search for an effective spinner since the retirement of Shane Warne.

Not a bad strike rate, as by my estimation, one out of 11 is at least twice as good a clip as Geoff Boycott’s batting strike-rate. So it’s not all bad.

However, just like the pitch in Galle, first impressions can be deceiving.

Australian cricket fans will be hoping that when it comes to their first sight of Nathan Lyon in the baggy green, that it is love at first spin.

If the love flows for Lyon, my bet is that Test sides picking groundsmen as their spinner will become the next cricket trend.

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