Nathan Lyon hunts down 500th wicket and enters the kingdom of the greats

Nathan Lyon’s 500-wicket milestone was a long time coming, but like the understated spinner himself, it was worth the wait. Ever a team man, he suggested that the personal milestone didn’t matter.

Nathan Lyon celebrates his 500th Test wicket on Sunday. Picture: Getty Images

Nathan Lyon’s 500-wicket milestone was a long time coming, but like the understated spinner himself, it was worth the wait.

The seamers had already taken the first five, there was a run out and the decision review system denied him another, but with the match threatening to end with him wicketless, the ball tracker lined up, the modest crowd rose to its feet and the unassuming off-spinner had the critical scalp.

It was not a moment too soon.

Not 15 minutes later the game was done, Pakistan had been bowled out for a miserable 89 runs and beaten by a whopping 360.

“I was pretty confident about it,” Lyon said of the review after the game. Ever a team man, he’d suggested that the personal milestone didn’t matter and he would have been just as happy with the win if the seamers had taken all the wickets.

But he did allow himself a ­moment to reflect on the achievement. “It’s something I’m very proud of,” he said. “I still pinch ­myself when I see my name next to – well not next to those guys (Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath) or below those guys. Shane Warne is the greatest to ever play this game, in my opinion, and Glenn McGrath’s record speaks volumes. To edge closer to those guys is something I’m very proud of.”

Mitch Marsh was named man of the match for his 153 runs and one wicket, but Usman Khawaja had contributed by outscoring the entire opposition with 90 runs in his second innings and David Warner had set the game up with 164 in the first.

Lyon got another in the same successful over and now has 501 wickets from 123 Test matches, sitting behind only Warne (708) and McGrath (563) on the Australian rankings. Only seven players in the game have taken more than him.

The bowler from the NSW bush has never been one to attract attention as he worked his way quietly and steadily into the upper echelons of Australian and world cricket.

The 500th should have happened in the Ashes this year. Lyon was flying to the line with 496 wickets when his calf tore while fielding at Lord’s. He left the field, tears streaming down his cheeks as the English crowd cheered his misfortune.

He needed one wicket on the fourth day of the Perth Test. It seemed a formality, as it had in the second match of the Ashes, but cricket taunted us.

The fast-bowling cartel, eyes as wide as the cracks that had opened in the Perth pitch, had other ideas. Wicket after wicket fell to the seamers. Mitchell Starc struck once, twice and then a third time. Josh Hazlewood jagged one off the edge of the Pakistan captain’s bat. Australian captain Pat Cummins plucked one for himself.

Agha Salman denied the off spinner his wicket by running himself out, the DRS denied him another by ruling the ball to have bounced over the stumps.

His first four-over spell came and went and Pakistan had crumbled to 6-63. This was an agony. But then the all-important wicket finally fell and Lyon had secured his place among the greats.