Despite the heavy focus on the pace attacks of Australia and New Zealand, it is spinner Nathan Lyon who now looms as the key difference between the teams after massively outbowling Mitchell Santner in the first Test.
Australia last night completed a crushing 296-run win over the highly-rated Kiwis on the back of a nine-wicket haul by man-of-the-match Mitchell Starc. Yet Lyon’s skilful effort was equally significant in the context of this series.
While Santner looked entirely harmless en route to match figures of 0-146, Lyon was a constant threat, continuing his return to form as he snared 6-111. Among Lyon’s haul were the huge wickets of Kiwi stars Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls.
So innocuous was Santner in Perth that New Zealand must surely now consider dropping him for the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, which has been a nightmare venue for visiting spinners in recent years. In the past four MCG Tests, visiting spinners have taken eight wickets at 74.
Santner’s lack of impact with the ball has been an Achilles Heel for the Kiwis for several years now. The absence of a decent spinner is a glaring weakness in the starting line-up of the world’s number two ranked Test team.
Since October 2016, the left arm spinner has played 12 Tests and taken just 14 wickets at 63. Two things have earned him selection over that period – his handy batting at number eight, and NZ’s lack of strong spin alternatives.
Australia’s Nathan Lyon (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
New Zealand’s back-up spinner in their current Test squad is a very modest bowler. Similar to Santner, Todd Astle is more of an all-rounder than a genuine frontline spinner.
In Astle’s four Tests, which have been spread across the past seven years, he has taken four wickets at 54.
Astle hasn’t exactly been lighting it up in first-class cricket either, taking just 15 wickets at 44 in the past 18 months.
What’s more is that Australia has become a heinously difficult venue for Test leg spinners. Just ask the world’s best wrist spinner Yasir Shah who has been destroyed in Australia, averaging a whopping 89 with the ball from his five Tests and being pummelled last month.
If Yasir could only manage figures of 4-402 in two Tests in Australia last month, what value is there for New Zealand in fielding a vastly inferior leggie in Astle?
At the same time it is hard to see how Santner can have any influence at the MCG and SCG, which have been absolute roads in recent Tests.
While he is a fine white ball bowler, Santner is a very limited red ball spinner. The reason he isn’t suited to Test cricket is apparent when you watch the bowling actions of Santner and Lyon side by side.
Whereas Lyon creates great energy through the crease, which helps him get heavy revs on his deliveries, Santner’s casual action means he earns little turn or bounce.
That is fine in white ball cricket, where batsmen are forced to take on Santner. But in Tests, the minimal wicket taking threat posed by Santner means batsmen can just milk him.
Meanwhile, Lyon at his best can challenge batsmen on all surfaces. Due to the vicious overspin he imparts on his deliveries, he can beat batsmen both through the air and off the pitch.
This overspin creates sharp drop on his deliveries, making it difficult for batsmen to read his length, and also allows the ball to bounce sharply off the surface.
This was exemplified yesterday when Kiwi superstar Kane Williamson was done through the air and then off the pitch by Lyon.
Williamson initially came forward to this Lyon delivery, then hastily moved back into his crease before the ball got big on him, caught his glove and bobbed up to short leg.
Kiwi opener Tom Latham was also undone by Lyon’s misleading flight earlier in the day. The Aussie spinner’s flat trajectory convinced Latham to play back to a ball that he should have met on the front foot. It skidded on and caught him plumb LBW.
Then Lyon dismissed New Zealand’s second highest-ranked Test batsman Henry Nicholls with a far loopier delivery that drifted heavily, before picking up his fourth wicket of the innings when he had tail ender Tim Southee caught behind.
That wicket of Southee earned Australia a massive victory over a side that arrived in this country with huge wraps on them.
While New Zealand could still fight back to win this series, it will take a remarkable effort. The Kiwis have long seemed to have a mental block against Australia in Tests, frequently underperforming against their trans-Tasman rivals. That is one of the reasons why it was so important they started this series strongly.
Instead, they were thrashed, and turned in two meek displays with the bat as they got rolled for 166 and 171.
Australia will have gained enormous confidence from the fact they were able to steamroll the much-vaunted New Zealand batting line-up despite being a bowler down, missing elite seamer Josh Hazlewood for most of the match.
Starc, Lyon and Pat Cummins stepped up brilliantly in Hazlewood’s absence to hand the Kiwis their most painful Test loss in quite some time.
Tom
Guest
Can't follow why they didn't play at least one warm-up game in Australia. Straight from NZ to Australian conditions a bit silly, especially given the strength of the Australian bowling.
Fox
Roar Guru
The test came down to one strong batting performance from Australia in the first innings – they were not so crash themselves in the 2nd innings and it had absolutely nothing to do with hitting out for runs which they certainly were not doing. A strong win in the end but Trent Boult will significantly boost the kiwi attack and the Kiwis had just come off a road of pitch in Hamilton and struggled to adjust to the bounce of Perth as did Australia in the 2nd innings quite frankly. They thoroughly deserved their victory but they would do well not to read too much into just yet. Astle is at least a more attacking bowler than Santner. Sure he not in Lyons class but he may more to say than some people think and he can genuinely turn the ball and has very good wrongún that is almost a slider delivery both example on display in this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0lRAqPfd8s…. There are reasons for his recent record – he has had a niggling injury for a start,,,why don’t you look at his overall 1st class record where he has taken 331 wicket at an average of 32 in a country that is a graveyard for many spinners on 80% of the wickets where it rarely turns much even on day five. Nathan Lyons average in 1st class cricket is nearly 35 with 551 wickets but his average is better in tests at 32. I am looking forward to seeing Astle play and hope they pick him. I have never been a fan of Santner at test level. I hope they drop him but sadly, his one and only century against England will probably save him but shouldn’t. Astle is a better defensive batsmen as well. I agree with your criticism of Santner 100% but think you may underestimate Astle’s ability as a spinner. He is a hell of a lot better than Santner IMO.
Pierro
Roar Rookie
Taking the tony greig key over and ill tell the curator to amp the pitch up - it can only suit our bowlers and batsman really.
Pierro
Roar Rookie
your spot on about green being some sort of talent, concerned that the bowling injury is significant to him, hope he is able to bowl again at full pace , many a good all rounder got their bowling curtailed ,steve waugh was one who was injured badly and couldn’t bowl the same fairly early on in his career. Batting became his foray and he was unbelievable at it at times when it mattered. I actually hope green can play in the coming seasons. Im all for giving young talent a go where they can consistently perform well early on over a few years period . Some big potentially debuts next summer if the selectors follow the consistent form . Id probably go for neser as the extra bowler in front of stoinis if the pitch does lean to four pace bowlers. Agreed marsh has been generally poor in tests in australia (better bowling him in london at lords/oval as I’ve previously suggested and he’s implemented on queue several times) . Stoinis has done well in shield this season with ball and bat but he’s not ideal I still think he could be valuable against new zealand . Noticed De grandholme/wagner were effective with medium to medium fast pace last test , the aussies struggled to pick the slower pace and timing/tactics. I don’t think head has been providing much we are waiting for him to get his discipline together , I’m still not afraid to give him a run in shield if he doesn’t reign it in. Wade didn’t look good last test for me either interesting to see how they go against better opposition bowling after pakistan. Im partially wondering if we can run a line through the pakistan tests a bit for the batting (not that head did much when he did get a try but he’s got the talent, I’m not questioning that but how many times can he make poor batting decisions is the question. He got a bit lucky first innings last test and was poor in second innings) . Will be interesting to see how they both go at mcg assuming they start . Positions 2, 5 and 6 still look a bit unpredictable for me thats for sure. MCG is not so much about putting a batsman down but more about what to do if this pitch isn’t bouncing and benign with rotation and for me its play for the four seamers as last year we got caught out sticking with the same side big time
Yattuzzi
Roar Rookie
I don’t know. The loss will sap confidence of the kiwis. They should have batted and where completely outmanoeuvred from DRS to batting in the light transition period.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
Post us a pitch report Pierro.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Although, people often talk about how India is a place where you need to bat first, but then you find plenty of series where India has had a heap of innings wins batting second. Basically, whatever they bowl out the opposition for in the first innings, they just bat and bat and score 200-300 more in their first innings and then bowl the opposition out for the win. While the toss can play a part, if the toss was such a massive factor in the match, then we probably wouldn't see the continual dominance of home teams we do. If an away team manages to win most of the tosses, they'd likely win the series. But we don't see that.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Hence my comment about if he's doing that in a year or two. He's clearly not ready now. Physically as much as anything. He's only 20. But the potential he's shown where his bowling has earned him selection in the WA team purely as a bowler, and when he's been unable to bowl he's considered worthy of selection as a pure top-6 batsman, suggests he's someone to keep an eye on when he can get fit. But my main point was that outside of Green, who's both unfit to bowl currently, as well as still being a bit "green", none of the other "allrounders" in Australian cricket are close to being test quality, and we are better just utilizing the likes of Labushagne, Head and even a few overs from Wade if required, rather than dragging in someone who's just not good enough.
TheGeneral
Roar Rookie
Interesting thoughts re Lyon on this topic. Some pushing for extra bowlers on the flatter MCG and SCG pitches, maybe dropping Head or Wade to give us the extra bowler, or leaving Lyon out and playing four quicks. I think they will go with the usual three quicks (Pattinson or Neser in) and Lyon. Came across an interesting stat re Head. I am not sure where to rate him as far as test cricket goes. However it was interesting to note the averages of some of our top batsmen after playing 15 tests. In order HEAD 40.82, Ponting 40.78, Clarke 40.31, Langer 37.16, Smith 35.22, MWaugh 34.65, Hayden 33.88, and SWaugh 29.68. So at this stage of his career he has performed better than some of our elite cricketers. Has to be persevered with ?
Graeme Smith
Roar Rookie
It does seem to have become more pronounced nowadays the deterioration of the pitch, such that when two even teams (England and Australia) are playing, whoever bats second is playing for a draw not a win. The Ben Stokes win in the Ashes was a bit of an aberration because England had actually gone into the 4th innings on the third day, which made a fairly high chase much more achievable than if they had gone in on the 4th day.
Graeme Smith
Roar Rookie
Lyon’s a bit of a funny spinner in that he seems to have suited his style more to the Australian conditions rather than the spin friendly dust-bowls of Asia. I don’t know of his exact record, but he has always seemed to have much better figures in Australia than when touring.
DCD
Roar Rookie
A tad sensitive Azza?
danno
Guest
Ian Smith was saying in recent times the Kiwis pace bowlers took 100 test wickets in a row before a spinner took a wicket, missing Vettori a lot
Azza
Roar Rookie
Where do you think Labascagne was born dimwit??
Azza
Roar Rookie
Nuh, can't agree, day 1 wasnt overly quick , reckon at least KW or Taylor would have dug in and got 100 in those conditions, didn't swing much, NZ gets 300/ 350, you are forgetting Pakistan were 0/60 at Gabba, Kiwis would have found a way...
Micko
Roar Rookie
I was saying here a couple of weeks ago that NZ needed an actual wicket taking spinner here like Somerville as ODI specialists like Santner aren't going to win them matches here.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
Is that right? He looked to be spraying them pretty regularly whenever I was watching. Admittedly I didn't see all his spells though.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
Yep, that will do it :happy:
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
He only took 3 wickets when he ran through that poor English side, so true to form
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
Did Langer say he’d drop Lyon to add the 4th seamer? Or would Wade or Head go?