Taking Lyon’s share

Summer of spin as Aussie amasses wickets

CRICKET A QUIET revolution is taking place in world cricket and Nathan Lyon is the man leading the charge. Spin is back. Test cricket’s annual leading wicket-takers lists are often heavily stocked at the top with rampaging fast men but not this year.

When he took his second wicket – a brilliant one-handed catch to remove Moeen Ali at the Adelaide Oval – Lyon went to 53 wickets for the calendar year, just one behind the leader, South Africa’s fast man Kagiso Rabada.

But it’s who’s next that is interesting. Six of the top seven are slow men with Ravi Ashwin (52), Rangana Herath (52), Ravi Jadeja (50), Keshav Maharaj (43) and Yasir Shah (43) all there, a sign not just of how much cricket is played in Asia but how crucial it is to have a decent slow man in the modern game.

Their stories and styles are many and varied, from cheeky Pakistani leg-spinner Yasir to portly Sri Lankan veteran Herath, the quirky Indian genius Ashwin to Lyon who stands out for being just plain normal.

Lyon is cricket’s international man of non-mystery. He has no doosra, controversially straightening arm or mesmerising finger flicks.

But his orthodoxy only heightens the worth of his performance and if he tops the wicket-takers’ list this year it will be monumental.

Off-spin has traditionally been regarded as the easiest and hardest form of bowling.

It’s easy in that if you cannot do anything else in cricket you try off-spin which, in its most basic form, is like playing chop sticks on the piano. But it’s also the hardest to succeed at because of its simplicity and most overseas off-spinners who come to Australia simply get sandpapered into oblivion.

Lyon shot to the top of the charts with probing accuracy.

It does not take the breath away in a Warne sort of way. In fact it works so smoothly it’s easy to underestimate the skill.

Lyon’s overspin and drop has a way of putting the ball just short of where batsmen want it – like in England’s first innings when Moeen played for the ball before it got to him and scooped it back to Lyon who took a brilliant left-handed catch.

It’s been a stellar year … and he’s not done yet.

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