Cricketer of the Week (December 8-14): Nathan Lyon

Nathan Lyon poses in front of the scoreboard after taking 7 wickets in the second innings

Just over two weeks ago, the game of cricket was hit by a tragedy that sent shockwaves across the world. Following the death of Phillip Hughes, who was hit by a Sean Abbott bouncer in a Sheffield Shield match, many observers thought that the game would take a prolonged amount of time to recover.

With 408 – Hughes’s Test cap number – painted on the outfield of the Adelaide Oval, players can be excused for starting off slowly, but they did end up displaying some extravagant cricket in the latter part of the match, in what will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest Test matches ever played. And it’s no surprise, that our Cricketer of the Year comes from that very match.

Standout performance in an outstanding match

We saw twin hunderds from David Warner and Virat Kohli – the Indian captain’s knock in the final innings of the match will surely go down as one of the finest displays in Test cricket over the last few years. But, in the end, the Delhi batsman couldn’t get his team over the line and hence loses out to a man who did.

From being part of the ground staff at the Adelaide Oval just over four years ago, Nathan Lyon has surely come a long way. Undisputedly, Australia’s number one spinner at this moment of time, Lyon took career-best figures of 7/152 on the final day of the first Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to guide the hosts to an emotional, yet memorable, victory on the very pitch he was curating in the not-so-distant past.

The New South Wales bowler came into the Test after a disastrous tour to the UAE, where he picked up just 3 wickets in the two Tests against Pakistan. As was the case many times previously, his place in the Australian team came under heavy scrutiny. But just like before, Lyon answered his critics by just going about his business without much fuss.

Taking advantage of India’s weakness against spin

India, a country known for producing great spinners and batsmen who play spin brilliantly, have been found wanting in both departments off late. England’s Moeen Ali, who, with all due respect, is a part-time spinner, asked a lot of questions to the Indian batsmen during the Test series in England earlier this year. The batters, who grew up on spinning subcontinental tracks, surprisingly had no answers.

Lyon must have been watching and waiting to take advantage of the same. And take advantage, he did!

On a track, where India’s debutant spinner Karn Sharma rarely troubled the Australian batsmen in their first innings, Lyon seemed like a beast possessed, extracting demons from a pitch which looked like a batting paradise hours before.

Cheteshwar Pujara, after a forgettable tour of England, found the going easy against Australia’s famed quicker bowlers. But it was a completely different story when Lyon came into the attack. The Australian spinner made the ball dance and Pujara wasn’t up for the ballet. India’s number three was sent back to the pavilion for a very well-made 73.

Although India’s middle-order put on some useful runs, Lyon made sure that none of them would go on to make huge scores. With figures of 5/134, Lyon had helped Australia garner a lead of 48 runs.

Memorable performance when victory looked improbable

Australian captain Michael Clarke, known for his ‘funky’ captaincy, decided to give India a target of 364 on the final day. While most teams in the world would have attempted to bat out for a draw in such circumstances, India, under the captaincy of Kohli, decided to go for it. And were on track to get there, with the score on 242/2 and Kohli having gotten to his second century of the match.

That is when Lyon decided to take matters into his own hands. The 27-year-old trapped Murali Vijay leg-before-wicket, one short of a deserving century for the opening batsman. There was no looking for the Australian tweaker as he went on to annihilate the Indian middle-order, dismissing Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma and Wriddhiman Saha in quick succession.

When Kohli pulled a short ball from Lyon, straight to Mitchell March at mid-wicket, the Australians sensed that an unlikely victory was firmly on the cards. Fittingly, Lyon picked up the last wicket of Ishant Sharma and immediately ran over to the 408 painted on the outfield to celebrate.

All said and done, Lyon’s performance was definitely the best tribute anyone could have paid to Hughes’s memory.

You can catch the past winners of this series on this link: Recent Cricketers of the Week