Lyon gets umpire's nod

It’s not often that you hear an umpire sing the praises of a bowler on whom he’s only recently finished adjudicating, even though – batsmen and wicketkeepers aside – on-field watchers have more insight than most as to how well a trundle is travelling.

But try this on, from the bloke who stood in the officiator’s shoes for much of Australia’s one and only centre wicket warm-up fixture prior to the first Test against South Africa beginning at Centurion on Wednesday.

Asked for his assessment of off-spinner Nathan Lyon, the drummer in the fab four Australian bowling attack who sits shyly behind the limelight-holding pacemen yet rarely misses a beat, John Davison offered up the following.

“I think Nathan, if he’s bowling well, is as good as any finger spinner in the world – conventional finger spinners,” Davison told reporters at the conclusion of the first of the one-and-a-half day practice match that pitted Australia against … well, Australia.

“He outbowled (England’s Graeme) Swann in the last (Ashes) series definitely.

“I just think that Nathan’s best ball is as good as anyone’s going around.”

To escape accusations of click-baiting at best, downright misleading at worst, it’s incumbent to declare here to those not in the know that Davison is not an impartial observer.

Such was the nature of yesterday’s hastily-arranged scratch match at Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg that the umpiring duties were shared among members of the Australian squad’s support staff – coach Darren Lehmann, fast bowling coach Craig McDermott and spin bowling coach – as well as Lyon’s personal mentor – Davison.

He has been working with Lyon since he first spotted the now 26-year-old almost a decade ago in the ACT before the boy from Young (NSW) made Adelaide his first stop on the road to international cricket.

But Davison, the former first-class off-spinner who also went on to captain Canada, is not simply a cheerleader for his charge.

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The fact that the depth and quality of finger-spinner stocks in Test cricket have thinned considerably with the recent retirements of Muttiah Muralitharan and Graeme Swann – forced out of the game by the pummelling he took during the Ashes – means it’s not quite the boast it would have been a few years ago.

By inserting the word ‘conventional’ into his search criteria, Davison might also have exempted Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal (who relies so heavily on his ‘doosra’ he might almost be considered a leggie) and the West Indies’ Shane Shillingford (sidelined to undergo remedial work on his action).

A quick look at the most successful spinners in Test cricket over the past two years does nothing to devalue Davison’s claim.

Swann captured the most wickets with 89 at 32.65.

Next most productive was Lyon with 75 at 34.01, followed by India’s Ravi Ashwin (73 at 25.97), Ajmal (62 at 28.79) and Shillingford (51 at 25.60).

Throw in the fact that Lyon is the youngest in that group, and it’s easy to subscribe to Davison’s parochial view that Australia’s slow bowling stocks are in pretty good shape.

And it was shape that was the focus for Lyon during yesterday’s glorified net session at the Wanderers.

Having enjoyed significant success bowling around the wicket to England’s right handers during the Ashes, which enabled to come more over the top with his action and therefore generate heightened bounce that accounted for a number of his wickets, he’s now looking to re-embrace the traditional.

Lyon delivered a bulk of his spells yesterday from over the wicket to right-handed batsman as part of a ploy to have him more comfortable and confident with that line of attack against the likes of South Africa’s heavy-scoring Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers.

“He hadn’t bowled a lot over the wicket to right handers in the Ashes,” Davison said following the day’s play in which Lyon was the leading wicket taker with three fairly sizeable scalps – David Warner, Michael Clarke and Shane Watson.

“He was coming around the wicket and got very comfortable doing that.

“So we’ve challenged him to be able to start over the wicket to right handers and try to get them bowled through the gate and try to bring first slip into play, and bat-pad.

“Then he’s got the plan B to come around the wicket to them.”

Whether Lyon plays in the opening Test will depend entirely on the amount of grass cover on the Centurion pitch, where the Australians will finalise their preparations after they complete their centre-wicket and other outfield training at Wanderers today.

But he’s certainly likely to be a significant element of Australia’s plans for the second Test at Port Elizabeth and even the third and final match at Cape Town where conditions are expected to be considerably drier.

As Davison happily points out, time is but another advantage that Lyon has at his fingertips.

“For a young guy he can play for another 10 years, so I think he’s pretty well placed to have 100-plus (104 Test) wickets at his age,” Davison said.

“You can never write anyone off in spin bowling.

“No-one is born a good spin bowler, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication and knowing your action.

“I think he (Lyon) has done a really good job in changing a few things to get things right, and to know his action over the last few years.

“He’s really nailed it down.”