Nathan Lyon and his fellow spinners are topping the charts of leading wicket takers, writes Robert Craddock
THE annual leading wicket-takers lists are often led by rampaging fast men, but not this year. A quiet revolution is taking place and Nathan Lyon is the man leading the charge. Spin’s back, baby.
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A QUIET revolution is taking place in world cricket and Nathan Lyon is the man leading the charge.
Spin’s back, baby.
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. He added two more and is now one ahead of South Africa’s fast man Kagiso Rabada.
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But it’s who’s next that 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 a monumental performance for all sorts of reasons.
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 generally try off-spin which, in its most basic form, is like playing chop sticks on the piano.
But it’s also the hardest trade 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, a spring in his delivery that makes him come over the top of the ball and create bounce, and drop and venom.
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 factor.
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 looked a clear case of batsman’s error but there was calculation in there as well, and there was when Alastair Cook saw a man moved from the covers to second slip, probed for the gap and edged to first slip.
Lyon has been up and about on and off the field this series with his bold pre-series taunting of England prompting Phil Tufnell to christen him “Nasty Nath’’.
Some people were initially concerned that he could be playing beyond the bounds of his personality but other who knew him better say its actually a case of the real man shining through after all these years of self doubt.
Either way, this has been a stellar year … and he’s not done yet.
Originally published as Nathan Lyon and his fellow spinners are topping the charts of leading wicket takers, writes Robert Craddock