Australia v New Zealand: Nathan Lyon looms large at the MCG
Nathan Lyon has invoked the curators’ code of solidarity by refusing to join the mob clamouring for the MCG drop-in to be dug up.
Nathan Lyon has invoked the curators’ code of solidarity by refusing to join the mob clamouring for the MCG drop-in to be dug up.
As the Test caravan heads to Melbourne, all the talk is whether the MCG pitch will be another road or a goat track like the unplayable strip that forced last week’s Victoria-WA match to be abandoned after 40 overs.
Hysterical calls for the Boxing Day Test to be moved have abated, but curator Matt Page’s pitch will be scrutinised like no other in the 10 days leading up to Australian cricket’s biggest day of the year.
Before he was Australia’s most prolific offspinner, Lyon was a groundsman at Adelaide Oval, and on Monday defended fellow practitioner Page.
“(Page has) probably had a few sleepless nights from the last week,” Lyon said after starring in Australia’s 296-run win in the first Test in Perth.
“I’m always going to be on the curators’ side.
“I’m confident there’s going to be a good wicket there. Confident that there will be a contest between bat and ball.”
Last week’s Sheffield Shield match was no contest on an overcooked pitch.
In his defence, Page was trying to find the right formula after the bat has dominated the ball in recent Boxing Day Tests.
Fears of another soporific surface have prompted Justin Langer to reveal the selectors are considering recalling Peter Siddle to help Lyon hold up an end while Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins attack from the other.
Given the unhelpful pitch, Lyon’s record in Melbourne is perfectly acceptable. His 35.14 average at the MCG compares with a career mark of 32.14.
But he’s only taken one five-wicket haul in eight Tests so is more of a stopper than a strike weapon at the MCG.
This is in contrast to Perth, where Lyon has taken to the drop-in like a goat to a mountain meadow.
Last summer he was man of the match in Australia’s only win of the India series.
He bowled as well, if not better, against New Zealand.
His victims included the Black Caps’ top scorer in the first innings Ross Taylor, star opener Tom Latham, who paid the price for playing back to the spinner in the second dig, and a well-set Henry Nicholls on the last day.
But of course the big one, the killer blow, came with Lyon’s first ball of the second innings, the one that bit and spat and surprised Kane Williamson into gloving a catch to short leg.
Perth hasn’t seen a first ball this good since Ryan Harris bowled Alastair Cook six years ago almost to the day.
Taylor’s wicket in the first innings was especially satisfying as Lyon held the line after the swashbuckling Kiwi tried to hit him out of the attack.
At one stage the spinner had 0-25 from four overs, but out of adversity came the triumph of one of Lyon’s best overs of the summer. One that first frustrated and then finished the batsman, caught at slip by Steve Smith.
“Ross has been a world-class player for a long period of time now and he wanted to take me on,” Lyon said.
“It was a great battle. I love being able to have those little battles when one of the best batters in the world wants to take you down and hit you out of the attack.”
Lyon is in the form of his life. He bowled beautifully in Brisbane but the wickets just refused to come.
The trend continued in Adelaide, where still more bad luck – and a missed stumping — left him with an unflattering 0-65 in the first innings.
But fortune smiled in the second dig. If his 5-69 in Adelaide delivered the coup de grace, then his 6-111 match haul in Perth was a coup de main, given the Black Caps were focused on what they perceived to be the main threat — Australia’s quicks on the bouncy strip.
No matter the state of the pitch, Lyon looms large as an Australian trump in Melbourne.
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