Lyon's raw skill snares another rare milestone

He might have played more Tests than Sir Geoffrey Boycott, taken more Test wickets than Sir Richard Hadlee and sung more renditions of a summer-inspired tune than Sir Cliff Richard, but Nathan Lyon is still learning his craft and fine-tuning his game.

Lyon today became just the eighth bowler in the 145-year history of Test cricket – and the third from Australia – to reach 450 wickets.

The memorabilia moment came amid a clatter of West Indies batters this afternoon as Australia steamrolled to a 419-run, the biggest (in runs) they've scored over their once-mighty Caribbean rivals and their fourth-highest in all Tests according to the same criteria.

Amid the celebrations for today's triumph, in his role of team song-master, Lyon broke more new ground by leading his first chorus of 'Underneath the Southern Cross' in an exotic locale, belting out the tune in the newly minted Rod Marsh Spirit of Cricket Wattle Meeting Place at Adelaide Oval.

Wicket number 450 was a classic off-spinner dismissal, as Lyon dropped his pace and imparted tantalising flight to lure tailender Alzarri Joseph from his crease to try and slog the spinner over mid-wicket, only for the ball to turn past the inside of the floundering blade and into middle-and-leg stumps.

But it was wickets number 443 and 448 captured over preceding days at Perth and in the first innings at Adelaide that highlighted the subtle changes Lyon has made to his bowling, underscoring how the old boy is still learning new tricks.

In the first NRMA Insurance Test last week, the 35-year-old defeated rival skipper Kraigg Brathwaite – the sole West Indies century-maker of the series – at a time Australia sorely needed a breakthrough, by deploying the 'slider' he'd been honing over previous months.

Whereas Lyon has historically used over-spin – or "spinning up the back of the ball" as he terms it – to make it drop more sharply and bounce pronouncedly, this new delivery is sent down with greater side spin and designed to land on the seam, allowing it to grip and turn at greater speed.

In Perth, it landed so perfectly on a roughed-up section of the fifth-day pitch it caught Brathwaite by surprise and speared into his stumps before he could get his bat in the way, even though he'd been at the crease for more than five hours by that stage.

Yesterday's execution was similarly pinpoint, pushing West Indies keeper Joshua Da Silva so deep into his crease that although the ball thumped into his back leg above the right-hander's pad, it was shown to be hitting the top of middle and leg stumps following Australia's successful review.

"The way he's bowling at the moment, he's getting some lovely shape and he's changing a few things up," Australia's stand-in skipper Steve Smith said of Lyon today, after his team completed a 2-0 drubbing of a clearly outclassed opponent.

"He got Da Silva lbw with a side-spinning ball, which is one that he's been really working on.

"It hit the seam and spun quite sharply and doesn't bounce quite as much, which is probably why it hit the stumps.

"But he's still learning and getting better, and that's what you want from someone who's played 100 Tests, and it sets the standard for everyone else.

"You can't just keep going on and doing the same thing over and over again, you've got to continue to get better and evolve and Nathan's certainly doing that."

As much as Lyon's consistency and longevity are integral to him reaching such a rare milestone, it's his capacity to have claimed 450 wickets through the art of finger spin – a skill that does not naturally lend itself to a vast number of variations – that perhaps stands as the strongest testament.

The only other off-spinner to prove so prolific is the game's all-time leading Test wicket-taker, Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralidaran whose idiosyncratic bowling style enabled him to turn the ball both ways with barely a discernible change to his action.

Lyon's pre-eminent skill, and the one that earned him a Test berth more than a decade ago after just a handful of first-class outings, is to repeatedly land his 'stock' off-break over after over, Test after Test, in the knowledge he will eventually find a way through even the most diligent batter's defence.

"I think he has the best stock ball I’ve seen in spin bowling," said Daniel Vettori, currently Australia's bowling coach and a fellow finger spinner whose 113 Tests for New Zealand represents more than Lyon's current tally (112) for a return of 362 wickets.

"And I think that ability to repeat it, to have the pace on the ball, with the top spin that allows the drift and the spin, and now he’s trying to add to that repertoire.

"You saw a couple of balls - a side spinner - where he’s been able to mask that as well.

"It just comes down to the fact his stock ball is so consistent, so repetitive, and asks so many questions and - as a spin bowler - I would have loved to have had that ball.

"And you hear other spinners around the world talk about it and say that’s the ball they admire the most.

"They try and replicate it, try and repeat it, but he’s been the only one that’s been able to do it for such a long period of time."

With 450 wickets from 112 Tests, Lyon's average of a tick over four per match means he's on track to crack 500 before the end of the next five-match Ashes campaign in the UK scheduled for June-July next year.

Before then, Lyon will play three NRMA Insurance Tests against South Africa (starting Saturday), four in India (February-March), and potentially a World Test Championship final in London in early June.

If he continues to claim scalps at his current rate, he will likely have reached the milestone in fewer Tests (125) than other incumbent members of the 500 club James Anderson and Courtney Walsh (both 129) and Stuart Broad (140).

Only Muralidaran (87), Anil Kumble (105) and fellow Australians Shane Warne (108) and Glenn McGrath (110) have climbed that peak in quicker time.

And should he join them, he can be assured of receiving personalised recognition from teammate Usman Khawaja, who today claimed Lyon's history making moments seem to roll around so regularly he's restricting his congratulations to 100-wicket increments.

"I told him 'I'm not going to shake your hand anymore - you're at that point where you're going to be overtaking people left, right and centre’," Khawaja joked to cricket.com.au immediately after Australia's latest Test win, and prior to Lyon leading them in the team victory song.

"I said I'd wait for every 100 (wickets) to shake your hand - I'm not shaking your hand for 450.

"Nah credit to him – it's awesome.

"He's done it for a long time, consistency for a long time (with) beautiful off-spin.

"Everyone understands what he brings to the team."

Men's NRMA Insurance Test Series v West Indies

First Test: Australia won by 164 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 419 runs

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Michael Neser, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner

West Indies squad: Kraigg Brathwaite (c), Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner, Shamarh Brooks, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Roston Chase, Joshua Da Silva, Jason Holder, Alzarri Joseph, Kyle Mayers, Marquino Mindley, Anderson Phillip, Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales, Devon Thomas

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