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Lyon tames Taylor in crucial two-act drama

An intriguing sub-plot played out at Perth Stadium as two of the most wily competitors from either side of the Tasman traded blows

The individual contest between Australia's most successful Test off-spinner (Nathan Lyon) and the man destined to soon be crowned New Zealand's greatest Test runs-scorer (Ross Taylor) brought brief but compelling theatre that was staged in two distinct acts.

The first played out under the arc lights of Perth's new stadium on Friday evening, when the hamstring strain suffered by seamer Josh Hazlewood meant Lyon took centre stage well before the script had shown.

The pink ball that is supposed to harbour magical properties for fast bowlers at night was tossed to Lyon after just 11 overs had been bowled on the second evening, such was the need to buttress an attack suddenly missing a central pillar.

A veteran of 96 Tests stretching back to 2007, when Lyon was still playing club cricket alongside his brother Brendan in Canberra, Taylor immediately grasped the importance of the unfolding scene.

If New Zealand were to resurrect their innings after losing both openers with a single run in the scorebook, they would need to ensure Australia's remaining quicks – Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins –were required to return for multiple spells in the stifling Perth heat.

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And the best way to achieve that was to have Lyon banished from the attack, a strategy that could only work if the spinner bled runs at an alarming rate.

So Taylor, whose previous appearance in Perth yielded an innings of 290 which remains the benchmark for a visiting Test batter in Australia, launched himself at the spinner in a manner redolent of a white-ball game.

Lyon had conceded a solitary boundary in his first over that was bowled at Taylor's batting partner and skipper Kane Williamson, and another in his next when he tempted Taylor with a wide, flighted off-break that his older rival thrashed to the boundary at deep point.

Taylor takes the attack to Lyon

When the battle resumed in Lyon's third over, the Australian changed tack and fired a faster, flatter delivery into the pitch which Taylor narrowly avoided squeezing to the bat-pad fielder as he reflexively fended the sharp-turning off-break.

And that's when Taylor decided it was time for the counter-attack to be launched.

Two balls later, he skipped down the pitch and swatted an ambitious drive barely beyond the fingertips of mid-off for a boundary, then followed that with another advance from which the ball squirted squarer, over point, but brought another four.

Correctly anticipating that Lyon would respond to those bold charges by going faster and flatter, Taylor rocked confidently on to the back foot from where he was able to deftly back cut past Steve Smith for his third boundary of the over.

Taylor's bold counter-offensive was lauded by his former teammate and ex-Black Caps skipper Brendon McCullum from the television commentary-box.

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McCullum noted it not only sent a clear message of intent to Australia who would surely have expected a safety-first approach given the visitors' parlous position, but also noted the defiant confidence it must have fostered in the foot-weary Kiwis' dressing room.

After a break for drinks, Lyon switched his mode of attack to around the wicket.

Seemingly content that his message had been received, Taylor holstered his blazing bat and contented himself with just seven more runs from Lyon's next four overs before Australia resorted to an all-pace blitz that brought crucial wickets in Friday's final half-hour.

It was the quicks that took up the battle when day three began, even though temperatures in Perth had crested 41C before the clock struck high noon, but Taylor remained unmoved and had taken his tally to 77 when Lyon returned to the bowling crease.

Expected to be put in under lights: Taylor

The pink ball might have softened in character and dulled in sheen over the intervening hour or more, but Lyon announced the battle's resumption with a delivery that would ultimately precipitate its denouement.

His first delivery to Taylor, at that stage 112 balls into his innings, looped away from the right-hander before biting on the sun-baked, fissured surface and fizzing at pace between bat and pad to narrowly miss the stumps.

Lyon threw back his head in disbelief, but it was Taylor's response that revealed more.

Lyon on the prowl to pounce on Ross

The surety and sagacity the 35-year-old displayed under duress the previous evening gave way, in the wake of that single delivery, to uncertainty and anxiety.

Two balls later, Lyon invited his quarry to aim another drive to a ball that carried over-spin and duly hurried past the outside edge of Taylor's probing bat.

Suddenly, the power balance from the previous night had been inverted and Lyon executed a textbook set-up that left Taylor floundering like a theatre patron trying to find their seat after the house lights had dimmed.

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An outside edge took Taylor to the safety of the non-striker's end, but brought only temporary relief.

Next over, Lyon fired another one past the by-now befuddled Taylor who let loose a frustrated (but unsuccessful) sweep shot, and then played for the spin only to find none.

The New Zealander became so keen to remove himself from the firing line he almost ran himself out midway through the over when Travis Head dived at extra cover and threw down the keepers' end stumps with Taylor scrambling to recover his ground.

Seeing no exit, Taylor unconvincingly kept out a couple of balls before Lyon landed the knock-out blow.

Tossing up a ball with extra width at which the batter offered a drive that was all inevitability but little intent, Lyon found the edge he envisaged and there was no palpable surprised when it landed in the safe hands of Smith at slip.

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Lyon briefly raised his arm in victory salute, as Taylor tucked the bat that had seemed so broad the night before beneath his arm and made for the cool of the sheds.

The final three NZ wickets then fell at a clatter, with two of those to the spin of Lyon and his part-time leg-break partner, Marnus Labuschagne.

But when Australia batted a second time on Saturday, it was the Black Caps seamers – employing their nagging short-pitched tactics that opener Joe Burns conceded can be tougher to combat than express pace – who shared all six wickets to fall.

It led to speculation that the Perth pitch, as it undergoes further cracking and becomes increasingly two-paced, might be more effective for the faster bowlers than the tweakers.

However, Australia need only look at the only previous Test played at the new venue – against India last summer – where Lyon claimed eight wickets across two innings in a player-of-the-match performance, to understand he looms as their potential trump.

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Especially with Hazlewood unable to bowl again, piling the workload upon the two specialist quicks.

"We're really fortunate that we've got the GOAT (Lyon), a world-class spinner who can take five-for as he did last year, and that plays a big part in our tactics," Burns said on Saturday night.

"Nathan will play a big part in the fourth innings, no doubt.

"We've already seen that the wicket has spun, and it's bouncing as well.

"Nathan bowls very well in the fourth innings so we're expecting him to take a few wickets."

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