Nathan Lyon - A Genuine Match Winner

In the last few years he has taken wickets by the bucketful and this has resulted in the off spinner currently being fourth in the list of Aussie wicket takers...

- Partab Ramchand

Nathan Lyon symbolizes the traditional adage associated with cricket that spinners, like good win, get better with age. In the last few years he has taken wickets by the bucketful and this has resulted in the off spinner currently being fourth in the list of Aussie wicket takers behind Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Dennis Lillee. And with 334 wickets in 82 Tests against his name it is only a matter of time before he goes past Lillee (355) to third place. The next mark McGrath’s 563 might be a bit too steep even for a bowler as skilful as Lyon but as it is he has accomplished a phenomenal feat to be the second most successful spin bowler for a country which has a tradition in producing some of the finest pace bowlers in the game’s history. In fact out of top 20 wicket takers for Australia, only five are spinners and except for Lyon all of them are leg spinners – Warne, Richie Benaud, Clarrie Grimmett and Stuart MacGill.