Murali, smoke and mirrors

Nathan Lyon took on the dual role of pupil and teacher during his recent trip to Sri Lanka, soaking up the lessons learned from off-spinning legend Muthiah Muralidaran and dispensing that advice to Australia’s next generation of spinners.

Tapping into the knowledge acquired by Muralidaran during his decade-and-a-half of international cricket, Lyon received an insight into the minds of some of the best batsmen of the modern era via Test cricket’s leading wicket-taker.

The 26-year-old has clearly committed the tips to memory, and he was only too happy to share with young Australian spinners James Muirhead and Clive Rose, and batsmen and part-time tweakers Will Bosisto and Matt Short.

“If you can talk to any spinners like Murali, Warne, Vettori, it’s going to be worth your while,” Lyon told the group of spinners during a net session in Colombo.

“I’ve been talking to Murali about the best batters in the world, and how they’re actually watching the seam. Sangakkara, Mahela, those guys, they’re actually watching the way the seam is going, so if you every now and again throw in a cross-seam one … it’s either going to hit the seam and kick, or hit the leather and skid on.”

Lyon passed on the details of a fascinating conversation he had with Muralidaran, in which the Sri Lanka great shared his feelings that a sizeable facet of the spin-bowling art is about getting inside a batsman’s head.

“(Muralidaran) reckons you only need two balls,” Lyon said.

“He goes, ‘I’ve got the off-spinner and the doosra – and that’s all I need’.

“He was talking about smoke and mirrors, and how good Warne was at bluffing blokes.”

Muirhead, the most advanced of the promising Australian spinners group, was in Sri Lanka for a second time, this time playing with club side Moors, and is intent on capitalising on new lessons learned from a range of sources.

“I came over here last year and got to experience a little bit the way they do things during training and in games.,” he said.

“Getting another opportunity has been really good, with ‘Hoggy’ (Brad Hogg) in the first week, and (Australia spin coach) John Davison and Murali coming in this week.

“Over here, the wickets turn big, so it’s quite fun and enjoyable, just a great experience.

“The Sri Lankans play their cricket a lot differently to us, so bowling to them and batting against them is a massive challenge, and something I’m relishing at the moment.

“Just bowling to them in game situations – we’ve had a few practice matches over the past two weeks, and I’ve done pretty well in those – they just play their game completely differently to us, and just learning that has been valuable.

“Working with fellow spinners in my team, they’re teaching me a lot as well. What areas to put the ball in – it’s completely different to back home; here, it’s more outside leg (stump), getting the batsmen to play forward.  They don’t tend to sweep here – they try to hit you over cover, and as an Aussie, they’re always trying to smack you out of the park.

Murali has been awesome. He’s taken 800 wickets so there’s no-one better to work with, besides my idol Warnie. I spent a little bit of time two years ago when I was at the Renegades with Murali … I’ve been working a little bit more technically with him.

I’m pretty lucky. Not many people get the opportunity to come to the subcontinent and work with Murali. I’m not going to take it for granted, that’s for sure – I’m going to work my backside off and hopefully it improves my cricket.”