Australia vs India 2018: 5 best individual performances from the Test series

Nathan Lyon 8-106, match figures, Perth

The playing surface was so green that India decided to go in with a four-pronged pace attack while the home side had off-spinner Nathan Lyon in their ranks. In the end, the team selection made all the difference with Lyon picking up an 8-wicket haul in the Test including a 5-for in the 1st innings.

Lyon is someone who doesn't possess too many variations and only gets to beat the batsman in the air and has been very successful in the past few years for Australia. In the 1st innings, his role was to keep the one end tight while the three pacers looked to bowl short spells from the other. The off-spinner not only kept the end tight but also mopped up the lower order pretty quickly to finish with five wickets in the innings.

But the real magic came only in the second innings when he got the wickets of Virat Kohli and Murali Vijay. The tussle with the former throughout the series was a fascinating one to watch and the way he set up the Indian captain was simply incredible.

Lyon kept bowling a little bit short on middle and leg stump for a couple of overs or so and that made Kohli play on the back foot until he tossed up one well outside off stump into the rough and a bit fuller to make Kohli come on the front foot and the batsman nicked it to first slip and it looked like a plan that worked. It would have given Lyon even more satisfaction since it was against the best batsman in the world.

Opener M Vijay was made to drive through the covers and the ball hit the rough to clip the leg stump to effect a classical off spinner’s dismissal and who knows, it might have ended the batsman’s Test career.