Which team is ahead in this Test? Is Nathan Lyon the most underrated player in Test cricket?
These questions were posed by an eventful day’s play which saw Australia complete a remarkable fightback to dismiss England for 179 and finish the day needing just 201 runs for victory with 10 wickets in hand.
Is Lyon the most underrated player in Test cricket?
During the last Ashes in England, the home team believed the gulf in talent between tweakers Graeme Swann and Nathan Lyon was so distinct that they had dry pitches prepared to exploit it.
Little more than five months on and Swann has been forced into retirement while Lyon has played a massive role in Australia regaining the Ashes.
The Aussie off spinner, who snared his 100th Test wicket today, is lambasted by scores of local and foreign fans every time he delivers a poor spell.
Frequently described as an ‘average’ bowler, he is constantly underestimated.
Yet he continues to embarrass his critics.
In the final Test of Australia’s disastrous tour of India in March, Lyon displayed a subtly remodelled action and a change in his stock angle to around the wicket.
At Delhi in that match, Lyon snared a career-high nine wickets, dislodging Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar in both digs.
Including that Test, his last eight matches have seen him return the brilliant figures of 34 wickets at 26.
Most importantly, he is developing a habit of making breakthroughs at pivotal moments for Australia.
In the series opener at Brisbane, Lyon dismissed Ian Bell and Matt Prior off successive deliveries to break the back of England’s first innings.
Then on the last day of that Test, as Alastair Cook threatened to bat his side to a draw, Lyon procured a loose shot from the English skipper to end his 195-minute vigil and kill off England’s hopes of avoiding defeat.
At the WACA, Lyon again prompted the key dismissal, defeating Cook who was well set on 72 to trigger another English batting slide in their first innings.
He helped seal the 3-0 series win in Perth by removing both Kevin Pietersen and Ben Stokes as they threatened to make a game of it in the fourth innings.
Today, however, was his crowning achievement.
He dismissed England’s three most in-form batsmen – Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell and Stokes – amid his first five-for on home soil.
He defeated each player in the flight, drawing loose strokes which ended in the mitts of fielders.
Lyon’s passion for cricket bleeds through every time he steps on to a Test ground.
His patent determination to hone his skills has been manifested not just in his increasingly potent bowling but also in his vastly improved displays in the field and with the blade.
When he debuted for Australia in Sri Lanka just over two years ago he was a genuine batting bunny.
That was no surprise given Lyon had played only five first-class games to that point so he had little exposure to top-level bowling.
His assured defence, combined with a blossoming range of strokes, has seen him average 24 with the bat in his past 10 Tests.
He has also become a reliable fieldsman after appearing sloppy during the infancy of his Test career.
I recently posed the question in a story for The Roar of whether England’s flagging paceman James Anderson was the most overhyped cricketer in Test cricket.
Now, I ask you Roarers, where does Lyon sit among the most underrated Test cricketers?
Which team is ahead in this Test?
The match swung violently in Australia’s favour in a fast-paced final session today.
But it cannot be overlooked that, since a drop-in pitch was introduced in 1996, the largest successful run chase at the MCG has been 183 by South Africa in 2008.
Australia still require 201 runs to win and remain a skittish batting side.
Should England manage to take two or more wickets in the first session tomorrow panic could well set in for Australia.
Their Ashes adversaries may have stolen the crown as the kings of the collapse this summer.
But Australia remain capable of committing cricketing hari kari as we saw in the first innings here.
Cavalier opener David Warner is the lynchpin for Australia.
While he is at the crease England will be on the defence.
If he survives to lunch I think Australia will win.
The key for England will be to conquer Warner swiftly and then put the squeeze on Australia’s batsman as they did so successfully in the first dig.
As it stands I would place Australia as tepid favourites to triumph.
Percentage wise it is about 60 percent Australia, 40 percent England with no chance of a draw.
Bayman
Guest
Aakash, They probably have Graham as the 'batting Gooch' in case Flower wilts!
Lancey5times
Guest
Wonderful call on Ben Dunk. He hit a couple of sixes last night so let's overlook the fact he can't make his Shield side. Get that man on a plane to Durban. I don't know you aside from this comment Nathan so I'm gonna assume you're a smart guy and this is out of character.
Lancey5times
Guest
75 wickets at well over 30 and a couple of flash in the pan Michelles. Averaged 3 wickets a test when the Australian pitches were built to turn on the east coast in particular to benefit one SK Warne. One innings doesn't make a bowler Johnno. If that was the case Michael Clarke and Jason Krejza would be vying for the title of the best off spinner we have ever produced.
The Bush
Roar Guru
Ronan/JGK, If you look at that list, you'll see the following (won/loss): Australia (8/7) West Indies (6/2) England (3/4) Sri Lanka (2/0) India (2/1) New Zealand (2/2) South Africa (2/4) Pakistan (1/3) Zimbabwe (0/1) Bangladesh (0/2) What these stats show is that Australia has consistently been a strong team (remember you have to have played well to set up a big chase), whilst the West Indies had a period of success, but have otherwise been poor (can't even set up big run chases to lose) and South Africa, though they've given us to memorable defeats, come across as chokers (and are on the wrong side of the ledger against us with us having two (2) wins over them on that list).
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Coulter-Nile hasn't exactly set the Shield on fire this summer - 11 wickets at 33. But they seem very keen on him and given it's a dead rubber I reckon they'll pick him as a younger guy ahead of ol' Dougie.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
That's the things with chases, it only takes one or two quick wickets and the pressure on the batting side becomes enormous. At that point it takes great mental fortitude from the batsman to play their natural games and not go into their shells.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
"Australia 404/3 114.1 England Leeds Jul 1948" Geez that was good going!
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
In an case I've got a feeling we're going to get a pretty exciting finish today for once.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Laxman definitely is not underrated. He gets huge props and is lumped in with Dravid, Tendulkar and Sehwag when his record - 17 tons in 134 Tests - is not in their class.
Chocco
Roar Rookie
Clearly the biggest talking point was Brett Lee bowling to the insane Englishman at Lunch, what the hell was he thinking, and what was Lee thinking as well, as Richard Hadlee said, it was lucky he wasn't killed. Whilst a few Aussies may have felt good seeing a Englishman beaten up, it was seriously cringy.
Don
Roar Rookie
Harris will be rested and I think Watson will be out injured / rested as well. Those 2 changes will mean even if Bailey fails today he will get another chance in Sydney. Boof won't want 3 changes at once. The real interest will be who comes in. Do they replace Harris with Faulkner? Do they bring in a specialist no 3 / opener for Watson? Do they replace Harris with a pace specialist like NCN, bring in Faulkner at 7 for Watson and shift everyone up one spot? For mine; Chris Lynn comes in for Watson and bats at 3. They will probably pick Hughes though... And Faulkner in for Harris. Bowl Smith a bit more in Sydney and even throw Warner the ball for a few overs.
Bayman
Guest
...thank God. I was having trouble getting that image out of my head.....
Bayman
Guest
Dan, ......not trying to be critical but did you mean 'Lyon has been incredible this serious'......or 'Lyon has been incredible this series'? Just pointing out that it's easier than it looks to get a typo or even just misspell a word. In my case I often have a problem entering into this web-site, and only this web-site, because letters, punctuation and even spaces get left out. So 'left out' can end up looking like 'lftot'. I am forever having to go back over words and re-enter the missing letters/spaces etc. Time consuming and thoroughly bloody annoying. And it only happens on the Roar web-site. I originally thought I had some sort of specific virus but a mate suggested it might be a problem with the Roar's ability to capture the text quickly enough. Strangely, in recent weeks the problem has virtually disappeared so either the Roar has fixed something or my 'virus' has somehow 'timed out'.
Bayman
Guest
Ronan, I tend to agree. This game will produce a result and only three are possible, win, lose, tie. A draw is not really an option. Knowing they should win has sent more than one Australian team in the relatively recent past plummeting to a nervous, seemingly inevitable loss. Remember Border and Thommo losing by three, Lee and Kasper losing by two, May and McDermott losing by one! The one common denominator was those mentally frail Queensland quicks who all got out when a top edge over the 'keeper's head would have won it. I would remind Roarers that we now have Ryan Harris in the lineup and he plays for,...for, ...for.........sorry, I just can't say it!
Bayman
Guest
......I confess the reality of your comment also crossed my mind when Australia began its run chase yesterday, and it will continue to jump in and out of my mind until the job is done.
Johnno
Guest
5/9 at the Adelaide Oval 1992/93, with a young Warne at the other end, Warne barely bowled in that innings in Adelaide, in that massive world championship like Test match vs the windies, wow Laney5times May must be rubbish with figures like that.
Lancey5times
Guest
How was Laxman underrated Johnno? And I must disagree with you on Tim May. Lyon will continue to prove how rubbish May was. Without Warne at the other end he would barely have got a wicket. Tuffers was an offie that was underrated
The Bush
Roar Guru
Yeah I saw that site when I looked this up. My friend then listed two straight up not on that list so I did more research and found a far more complete list. I agree that 25 in the history of cricket isn't many, but when you consider how many games are draws with 4th innings totals above 300, it's not as extreme as some make out; it's just bloody tough! Whilst I agree it's a little moot, this current Australian team is the pinnicle of collapsing lineups so anything can happen today!
The Bush
Roar Guru
I think it's a testiment to how hard we play the game that we've been on the wrong end of so many losses - you'll note how many of those involved out champion team of 95-05 and no one could say they didn't have talent/skill etc. You gotta be in it to loss it sometimes!
Matt
Guest
http://www.cricket365.com/stats/test-records/team/fourth-innings-run-chases Might not be complete then. 25 is still low considering all of the games that have been played for over a century. However it's all theoretical now, as 225 (now 195 to go) is a much lower target. It has more to do with how well or not both teams play.