Lyon's Test experience to benefit his ODI game
Wisdom, wickets and the white ball
Nathan Lyon carries treasured memories of his previous visit to Harare, as part of an Australia A limited-overs squad that came here to play against teams from Zimbabwe and South Africa in 2011.
After all, it’s not every one-dayer that a No.11 gets to hit the winning runs for his team with just one ball remaining, and do it by hitting an international bowler so far over the midwicket fence the ball disappears among afternoon commuter traffic.
At least, that’s how Lyon – who boasts a one-day international batting average of 4.00 – describes the shot off South African seamer Rory Kleinveldt that cleared the spectator hill at the Harare Sports Club three years ago.
His only regret is that the blow was not captured on video, as he feels it was an even cleaner strike than the straight six that Mitchell Johnson blasted into the window of a television commentary box at the ground during Monday’s ODI against Zimbabwe.
“Everyone was talking about how far Mitch hit his, but I hit mine about 30 metres more,” Lyon said with admirable deadpan.
“It’s not on TV record, but you can ask a few of the guys – Mitchell Starc was here, Mitch Marsh was here, Phil Hughes – so you can ask them about it.
“(It was) the second-last ball of the game, three runs to win – it went the journey.
“Over the hill, it was probably about a 100-metre hit.
“I think Bobbie Mugabe (Zimbabwe’s President, whose presidential residence borders the HSC) was under attack.”
It’s not only his batting, which has progressed to the stage where he is now the Test team’s nightwatchman of choice and remained not out throughout last summer’s Ashes series, that Lyon is prepared to extract the mickey from.
The recent excitement generated by news he has refined a ‘mystery ball’ for the coming summer led him to express mock disappointment that nobody had noticed his myriad variations – which he claimed now number nine – when bowling in the nets in Harare several days ago.
But what he is unashamedly genuine about is his desire to nail down a berth as Australia’s premier white-ball spinner now that he has won a recall to the ODI set-up more than two years after he played the most recent of his two coloured-clothing games for Australia.
With a home World Cup campaign set to begin in less than six months, Lyon is hell-bent on making the most of this opportunity and has sought the counsel of the game’s most successful ODI (as well as Test) bowler Muthiah Muralidaran to help realise that ambition.
Muralidaran, the Sri Lankan spin wizard who will join the Australia squad for its upcoming tour to the UAE for Tests and limited-overs fixtures against Pakistan, has worked closely with Lyon during Australia’s recent winter break.
“I had to work on my game and the different challenges of my bowling and my skills set, and I’m confident now of my skills set to get the job done in any circumstances,” Lyon said.
“So I’m feeling really good about my game.
“It was all the same messages (from selectors) and the big one was consistency, so I’ve been working on that and also my different variations.
“It’s a work in progress and will be a work in progress throughout my whole career, so I’m just really enjoying cricket right now.”
One of the areas of focus for Lyon when he worked with Muralidaran in Sri Lanka earlier this year was to improve his effectiveness with the white ball, in order to be the attacking, wicket-taking spinner that Australia hopes to take into the World Cup.
Muralidaran’s advice to his fellow off-spinner was not so much technical changes, but rather to have confidence in the undoubted skills that Lyon already possesses and to find ways of assessing and targeting batsmen’s shortcomings more rapidly to accommodate the shorter form of the game.
“The big thing about one-day cricket, it happens a lot faster than Test cricket and I have to work out batters a lot quicker,” Lyon said.
“I feel like I’ve grown as a player and that my experience at the Test level has definitely helped me come out here to play one-day cricket.
“So that was a big message from Murali if I was to play one-day cricket.
“He really backed up that my skills set is heading along the right way and I’ve really enjoyed my time working with (him).
“To hear that advice and that compliment from Murali is something pretty special that I’ve taken on board.
“It’s just pointed me in a good direction, and I feel really confident.
“I’ve got this opportunity now to put it into practice.”
While Lyon has been identified as an integral element of Australia’s World Cup aspirations, it’s the battle between the Australian and South African fast bowlers that is likely to decide this tri-series.
The early morning (9.30am) starts in Harare means the ball nips about off the seam when it is new and the sun has yet to suck the life from the pitch.
And the fact that today’s match will be played on a newly-prepared pitch, as opposed to the reconditioned one that was used for Monday’s series opener between Australia and Zimbabwe, means the first 60 minutes might well decide the end result, such is the evenness of the teams.