Overstepping the mark ...

While the Australian bowlers toiled hard in the sun on the third day of their second Test against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi this week, an interesting statistic beamed across the electronic scoreboard.

It read: “Nathan Lyon has bowled 20 000 deliveries in Test cricket without bowling a no-ball”.

That’s a lot of balls without a single blemish. But, in all fairness, the Australian off-spinner shouldn’t be overstepping the mark from a short run-up. No spinner should for that matter. But it does happen, and it happens far more often than you would think – much to the frustration of team-mates, coaches and fans around the world.

If you ignore cricketers that have only played a few Tests, not bowling a no-ball in Test cricket makes you part of an elite club.

Interestingly, there are five big names that spearhead that club – and all five have taken more than 300 Test scalps. India’s Kapil Dev, England’s Sir Ian Botham, Pakistan’s Imran Khan, Australia’s Dennis Lillee and Lance Gibbs of the West Indies are the players, other than Lyon, who have never bowled a no-ball in their careers.

Of that list, only Gibbs was a spinner, the rest were fast bowlers. All played 70 or more Test matches.

Aged 30, Lyon still has plenty of years of cricket ahead of him so he could still err, but that’s not the point. To not overstep the mark takes extreme discipline and care, especially in the unforgiving Test cricket arena.

Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar went as far as saying Dev never ever bowled a no-ball in a nets session. Wow, now that’s discipline. There’s nothing more frustrating than watching professional cricketers during nets, constantly overstepping the mark. Sure, it’s not the real deal, but shouldn’t you practice as if you are in a match?

Former Proteas fast bowler Morne Morkel was notorious for bowling no-balls.

Every time Morkel would get a wicket South African fans would hold their breath as the third umpire checked if he had bowled a legitimate ball or not. Admittedly, Morkel is incredibly tall, so it couldn’t have been easy landing his foot in the right place every ball.

How I wish Lyon was there to tap him on his shoulder and teach him the importance of getting it right each ball.