Nathan Lyon has become just the eighth bowler in Test history to take 450 wickets.
A day after eclipsing Shane Warne’s towering figure of a record 66 wickets at Adelaide Oval,
Lyon’s first wicket will took him to 450, a height previously scaled by just seven men in Test cricket, and only by Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath for Australia.
Nathan Lyon became only the third Aussie bowler after Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath to take 450 Test wickets
Further scalps will also extend his lead over Ravichandran Ashwin for the second most by an offspinner behind Muttiah Muralitharan and his record mark of 800.
‘Many people have talked about it but I think he has the best stock ball I’ve seen in spin bowling,’ Australia’s spin coach and New Zealand great Daniel Vettori said of Lyon.
‘That ability to repeat it, to ask so many questions, to have the pace on the ball, the top spin that allows the drift and the spin and now he’s trying to add to that repertoire.
‘I think you saw a couple of balls, a side spinner where he’s been able to mask that as well.
Lyon finished with figures of 4-65 in the second Test against the West Indies
Australia spin bowling coach Daniel Vettori praised Lyon for having the best ‘stock ball’ he’s ever seen among spinners in world cricket
‘I think it just comes down to the fact that the ball that the ball he bowls, his stock ball is so consistent, so repetitive, and asks so many questions.’
Vettori has worked with Lyon for parts of this year, at a time when the spinner has returned to his previous best.
The spinner has claimed crucial five-wicket hauls in both Pakistan and at Perth to spin Australia to day-five wins, while also claiming another five-wicket haul in Galle.
It has given him every chance to finish the year as the leading Test wicket-taker for 2022. He’s one behind Stuart Broad’s 40 and equal with Jack Leach on 38 with an extra game in hand.
Vettori (left) was full of praise for Lyon’s ability to master a stock ball that is so effective
South Africa quick Kagiso Rabada is the other main challenger on 37, with South Africa and Australia to play two Tests in Brisbane and Melbourne before the year is out.
‘For myself as a spin bowler, I would have loved to have had that (stock) ball,’ Vettori said.
‘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.’
Chasing 497 for victory, the West Indies crumbled to an embarrassing 77 all out
Joshua Da Silva was the Windies’ second-highest run scorer with 15 in the second innings
Pink-ball king Mitchell Starc has helped bowl Australia to a comprehensive 419-run win over the West Indies at Adelaide Oval, wrapping up a 2-0 series sweep of the Frank Worrell Trophy.
Chasing 497 for victory, the Windies could only muster a fourth-innings total of 77 before being bowled out early on day four in the second Test.
Mitchell Starc claimed two wickets on Sunday to go with his one from Saturday night, finishing with figures of 3-29 and maintaining his status as the best with the pink ball in hand.
Nathan Lyon picked up another to become the third Australian to claim 450 Test scalps, after Scott Boland’s triple-wicket maiden over on Saturday night started the Windies’ demise.
Mitchell Starc (middle) claimed two wickets on Sunday to go with his one from Saturday night, finishing with figures of 3-29
Starc continued the rot on Sunday when he had Devon Thomas caught behind for 12 in the third over of the day, before adding to Jason Holder’s woes when he uprooted his off stump.
The ball to remove Holder was classic Starc, swinging back through the gap between bat and pad at 142km/h.
Alex Carey provided the other highlights, with two superb catches up to the stumps off Michael Neser (3-22) to remove Roston Chase and Joshua da Silva.
And by the time he took another one-hander standing back off Neser to have Marquino Mindley for a duck, the job was done.
Jason Holder was bowled by Starc for 11 in his second dig, as the tourists folded
The win is Australia’s biggest-ever runs victory over the West Indies, and the team’s third-highest of all-time against any side.
Starc will also now start the Brisbane Test against South Africa on the verge of 300 Test wickets, with his Adelaide haul taking his total to 296.
But Australia are aware a stronger challenge awaits against the Proteas.
The South Africans are one of only two touring teams to win three straight series in Australia, after crushing Steve Smith’s men at home in 2016-17.
Australia wrapped up a 2-0 series win after triumphing in Perth and Adelaide
Their batting remains the bigger question mark, but in Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada they have a particularly threatening pace trio.
‘They present a really good challenge for us, they’re a very good side,’ stand-in captain Steve Smith said.
‘Particularly their fast-bowling stocks are very strong and we need to be at our best to compete.’
They will almost certainly bring more than a West Indies team that has lacked fitness, form and any real intensity.
Australia’s domination of the series has included Australia piling on 1490 runs for the loss of just 19 wickets, while claiming all 40 of the Windies’ scalps for 907.
Marnus Labuschagne (left) and Travis Head (right) both averaged over 100 during the series
Three Australians averaged more than 100 with the bat with Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head’s first-innings centuries in Adelaide coming after the pair, along with Smith, dominated in the first Test in Perth.
‘Our boys batted particularly well the first day (in Adelaide) … and the bowlers did the job like they have done so many times for us in these pink-ball games,’ Smith said.
That is in contrast to a West Indies side that had five bowlers average at worse than 100.
It helped extend Australia’s grip on the once-prestigious Frank Worrell Trophy to 27 years, with the two teams to meet again for two more Tests next summer.
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