Yesterday at the MCG Nathan Lyon became the third-fastest Australian to capture 100 Test wickets.
That staggering stat proves the 26-year-old offie is no longer flying under the radar, but among the first-choice selections.
Mitchell Johnston is the fastest in a year and 250 days, from Shane Warne’s two years and 26 days, and Lyon’s two years and 117 days.
The slowest is Hugh Trumble’s 12 years and 13 days, but there weren’t too many Tests around in his time between July 1890 and July 1902.
The Australian 100-wicket scoreboard
17 Tests – Charlie Turner, Clarrie Grimmett.
20 – Bill O’Reilly.
21 – Stuart MacGill.
22 – Bill Johnston, Dennis Lillee, and Jeff Thomson.
23 – Graham McKenzie, Ashley Mallett, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, and Mitchell Johnston.
24- Max Walker.
25 – Geoff Lawson, and Bruce Reid,
26 – Hugh Trumble, Ray Lindwall, and Terry Alderman,
27 – Monty Noble, Craig McDermott, Alan Connolly, and Merv Hughes.
28 – Rodney Hogg.
29 – Lyon’s in class company with Alan Davidson, and Peter Siddle.
Even in this series, Lyon is right up there among the wickets.
Johnson leads the way with a tearaway 31 wickets at 14.32.
Lyon – 16 wickets at 26.93.
Ryan Harris – 14 at 26.
Siddle – 13 at 26.07.
Shane Watson – four at 29.25.
And Steve Smith – just the one wicket costing 58.
Lyon’s 16 scalps include England skipper Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Joe Root, and Ben Stokes twice each, with Graeme Swann, Monty Panesar, Tim Bresnan, and the dangerous Stuart Broad once each.
For the icing on the cake, Lyon is no ‘bunny’ at 11 in the order.
His unbeaten 18 yesterday in a last wicket stand of 40 with the in-form Brad Haddin (65), meant the Australian were chasing 231 for victory today, rather than the psychologically more demanding 271.
Add a safe pair of hands, and Lyon is a very accomplished cricketer, and should be treated as such, rather on sufferance because the selectors have picked him
Fittingly, there were 63,864 on hand at the MCG yesterday to personally salute his achievement.
After posting 92 with the bat, the RCB star was having an equally brilliant day in the field.
The RCB opener posted a man-of-the-match 92 off 47, as his side defeated Punjab Kings by 60 runs.
The opener scored a man-of-the-match 89 off 30, in the 10-wicket win against Lucknow Super Giants that came off just 9.4 overs.
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