Lyon’s lair
Spinners are seen as older-ball bowlers. But that has never quite been true, it’s just that you wouldn’t waste a new pill on them when the conditions suit the quicks. Everyone loves a hard ball. It spins off the seam, slides off the smooth and bounces more.
The last bit matters most for Nathan Lyon, one of cricket’s best overspinners. The newish ball helps his extra bounce.
From overs 18-30, he has the most wickets for Australia. Now, we only have that stat for the modern era, so it’s warped. But it also makes sense.
That is when the ball is more likely to bounce higher. And it holds up for Lyon in Asia as much as it does elsewhere. More crucially, he is so much better than the rest of the world at this.
On the third day of Australia’s first Test against South Africa, he was at it again. This time he tormented Temba Bavuma outside offstump until the South African captain gave up and went for the reverse sweep. And what dismissed him was a top edge from the extra bounce.
But then Kyle Verreynne did the same thing later.
In the history of shot data, there have been 194 dismissals playing the reverse sweep. Of those, 18 have been caught at slip. To have two of them on one day is unfortunate.
