Pakistan finished an energy and brain-sapping (viewers included) first day of the first Test between Australia and Pakistan at 4/219. In many eyes, they were the winners from the first day of the series.
Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle were relentless upfront with both new balls, and Mitch Marsh nipped a few this and that way.
But what about the spinners? Both Steve O’Keefe and Nathan Lyon struggled for penetration through the middle session when the bulk of their work was to be done to give the seamers a rest. Work needs to be done.
I am a fan of Lyon, but yesterday both he and O’Keefe got it wrong.
We can give the debutant a little leeway. He would’ve been nervous, and isn’t a prodigious turner of the ball. The wicket was dead for the most part, and O’Keefe looked to be used as a container by Clarke.
The case of Lyon is more interesting. A vastly improved last 15 months has seen him take 63 wickets in his last 12 Test matches, and seen him fall back into favour, correctly in my view.
It is unfair to assume that yesterday’s wicket was a rank turner from ball one. It was lifeless for 75 odd overs, and wasn’t like the Indian wickets that the Australians encountered last year (Lyon took nine wickets for the match in his last visit to the subcontinent).
That said, his lines and subtlety was a little off on day one The tactic from the Ashes bowling unit was for Johnson to attack for three overs, Ryan Harris to attack off stump at pace, Siddle to nag away and Lyon to bowl around the wicket with defensive fields.
On Day 1, Lyon operated a lot of his time over the wicket to the right handers to try and pitch it in Johnson’s foot marks. Or so the theory goes. Daniel Brettig, the Cricinfo journalist, quipped during tea that he hadn’t seen Lyon force one batsman to drive through cover, and he was right.
Lyon was too often lapsing too straight and on a length, happy to let Younis or Azhar Ali tuck him safely for one to deep backward square.
The art of off spinning is to entice the batsman to play shots. They are not appreciable turners of the cricket ball, like a wrist spinner, so guile is their aim. Lyon had rediscovered this, especially during the Ashes. His loop, not to be confused with flight, was beautiful and worked; think Ian Bell’s second innings dismissal at the MCG, beaten in the air, the ball ‘dropping’ on England’s best player of spin, and got him chipping to mid-off.
What made Graeme Swann such a good off spinner, was his loop and guile (as well as turn), but once that guile went in the Ashes, he was easy money, and retired three Tests in, unable to recapture his biggest assest.
The thing is, it is easy to read the speed gun and see Lyon delivered the ball at say, 87kph. A good speed, no too slow, nor too fast.
But this is where an off-spinners’ trickery comes into play. One ball at 87kph can be flat through the air with no change in pace. Another ball at exactly the same pace can have more ‘loop’, creating more drop, and seem more deceptive to a batsman, with no change pace.
That loop was not there, no carrot dangling to the batsman. Not full enough, not wide enough. 68 per cent of Lyon’s deliveries were dot balls, but tellingly, out of the 78 runs scored off him (not bad figures, mind you, from 24 overs), 29 were scored from midwicket through to backward square leg, demonstrating his poor line and trajectory. Only eight balls were deemed ‘full’ in length according to Hawkeye.
Granted, the ball didn’t spin a lot until Lyon was brought on with the second new ball, but that should be even more of a cue to the bowler to entice the batsman occasionally into a rash stroke, with a tempting ball outside his off stump.
It doesn’t have the be a rank half volley or wide enough that Michael Clarke could catch it at first slip, but full enough to get the Pakistan batsmen lunging with hands and feet, fending outside their off stump.
It was only late in the day, when Lyon finally got it right, getting first Misbah, then Shafiq, to nervously play with hard hands on a perfect line and length. For the majority of the day, it was just too straight, too flat, too easy. If Australia are to keep Pakistan under 350, they need Lyon to get it right in the first session of Day 2.
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