Why the SCG is no happy hunting ground for India — or Nathan Lyon

Reckon India loves playing on the “spin-friendly” SCG? Think Nathan Lyon dominates on his own track? The reality is far more brutal.

Aussie spin king Nathan Lyon hasn’t exactly dominated on his home SCG deck. Picture: AAP

There’s accepted wisdom that the SCG favours India but the truth is the visitors have only ever won a single Test at the venue.

There’s accepted wisdom that the SCG favours spin, and it has been a place where teams have chosen two spinners, but it is not a place that favours all spinners all the time.

Just ask Shane Warne how much it favoured him when he took 1-150 there on debut.

It is Nathan Lyon’s local and should be a place where he prospers, but he is one who doesn’t necessarily profit in his home town. Again the reality is a little at odds with the expectation or perception.

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Aussie spin king Nathan Lyon hasn’t exactly dominated on his home SCG deck. Picture: AAP

If averages are a guide to a bowler’s performance then the SCG is Lyon’s worst platform behind the WACA and Canberra. As the WACA is basically defunct and Canberra only an option when the fixture gets funky, this is a something of a bad thing. Or it was.

Stuart MacGill, a man whose initials are SCG, took 53 wickets from eight games at an average of 24.47 at the venue.

Shane Warne played 14 Tests and took 64 wickets at 28. However, his final six Tests at the ground reaped just 21 wickets at 37.

Lyon, has played 10 games at the SCG, picking up 36 wickets at an average of 38. Those numbers were tracking a lot worse before he picked up 10 last year against New Zealand, indeed he was averaging close to 48 runs a wicket before then.

Want to know some more stats?

The Aussies might be petrified of Ravi Ashwin, but they might serve themselves to check his record at the SCG. Picture: AAP

Ravi Ashwin, the bloke who is keeping Australian batsmen up at night, has a miserable record at the SCG. On his first trip there in 2012 he took 0-157, three years later he had returns of 1-142 and 4-105.

However, anyone who thinks history is a guide to how Ashwin will go this week is a fool, unless they are looking at cricketers who turned their records around with a breakthrough Test at the ground as Lyon had last season.

A young Shane Warne followed up his 1-150 against India in 1992 with a 1-116 against the West Indies in 1993, but was imperious with 7-56 and 5-72 against South Africa the following summer.

In 2010 Australia was in deep trouble at tea on the fourth day of the match against Pakistan. The visitors were 3-77 and needed less than 100 to win.

Nathan Hauritz played the game of his life on the SCG when he bagged five wickets against Pakistan.

Ricky Ponting brought a nervous Nathan Hauritz on to bowl the over before tea and watched as Mohammed Yousuf peeled off three boundaries.

“I went to the change rooms at tea and had a long hard think and Pup (Clarke) was talking to me as we were walking out and said. ‘Don‘t worry about the runs. If you bowl well, you will get them out’,” Hauritz told The Australian after the match.

“That reassured me a little bit. I had a little bit of luck, but it was good in the end.”

Then-captain Ricky Ponting would not let Hauritz leave the field after he injured himself taking a caught and bowled.

Hauritz took five wickets after the break. The first, Yousuf’s, cost him a finger nail but earned him the nickname “nails”.

The spinner injured his hand taking a caught and bowled and said he would go off for treatment, but Ponting would hear nothing of it, instructing him to suck it up and stay on and bowl.

Graphic on record of SCG spinners

Two balls later he knocked over Misbah-ul-Haq and when the day was finished he had taken 5-53 and won the match for his country.

Hauritz said later it was the best game of his life.

Australian coach Justin Langer said on Tuesday that he believes the nature of the SCG has changed in recent years.

“You think about the current Australian team, a lot of them are from NSW,” he said.

“They love playing at the SCG. I guess back in the day you could argue there was benefit for India, back when it used to spin big, but we‘re expecting a really good cricket wicket here.

“And we‘ve got the advantage of having Nathan Lyon, who is a great spin bowler.

“I think they‘re pretty evenly matched and we’ve had good success here. Let’s hope it continues this week.”

Originally published as Why the SCG is no happy hunting ground for India — or Nathan Lyon