Lyon earns Indian respect

Once upon a time Steve Jobs quipped that the creation of iTunes for Windows was "like giving a glass of ice water to someone in hell". To an Indian batsman in Australia, the sight of a local spinner at the top of his delivery stride can be cause for similar anticipation. Having ducked and weaved and dodged and swayed against the brand new ball fired down at high speed, the chance to use feet and wrists and bluff is commonly seized upon with glee.

It was only the seventh over of the morning when Michael Clarke deigned to throw the ball Nathan Lyon's way. M Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan responded as though both their birthdays had arrived at once. Vijay attempted a slog at the very first offbreak he received, before Dhawan pounced on a long hop almost before it had arrived. Lyon took his cap and wandered back into the field having conceded eight.

By the time Clarke called on Lyon again, the admirable Ryan Harris had burst through Dhawan, but Indian confidence about dispatching Australia's No. 1 spinner remained. Thrice Vijay advanced to crash Lyon down the ground, the shots demonstrating a distinct lack of concern about the potential to miscalculate.

Lyon, though, was not perturbed, and as the day developed he offered up a series of spells the equal of anything in his Test career so far. It has not been uncommon in the past for Lyon to return figures not exactly commensurate with the quality of his loop, flight and turn. But in Adelaide his teammates were universally grateful for how he managed to hold his own against Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and company. Without Lyon, a hard day in the field might have been significantly grimmer.

Thus far Lyon's 2014 has been a largely barren one, characterised by his inability to strike on the final day against South Africa in Cape Town, and a failure to have any sort of impact against Pakistan's sure-footed batsmen in the UAE. But sessions with his longtime spin mentor John Davison in Brisbane and Sydney helped free Lyon's mind and technique from any doubts created in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, while the extra bounce afforded by Australian surfaces - even one as equable as Adelaide - offered up welcome aid for his overspin.

There was another factor helping Lyon also, in the form of footmarks created by India's seamer Ishant Sharma. His big boots helped unsettle the surface outside off stump at the Cathedral End, encouraging Lyon to bowl from over the wicket on the sort of attacking line he has found hard to stick to on other occasions.

"Here it's pretty easy, we had big Ishant running down the middle of the wicket bowling to Davey Warner around the wicket, so thankful for him making some footmarks for me and bowling around the wicket to Davey," Lyon said happily. "I'm looking forward to bowling more into those footmarks and hopefully he bowls there again and does it for the whole series..."

For once, Lyon also had a little good fortune, when his overspin and Pujara's dead bat conspired to have the ball bounding back onto the stumps, too quickly for India's No. 3 to do anything about it. Pujara was one of numerous Indian batsmen to prosper against Lyon in India last year - with the exception of a desperately poor pitch in Delhi - and he was happy to agree that facing Lyon had become a more vexing task this time around.

"I think he has improved his bowling, no doubt about it," Pujara said. "He was getting a little bit of turn from the rough and he was trying to bowl in the rough. When I played him last in India and what I'm seeing now, he has improved his bowling."

The best moment of Lyon's day arrived in the middle of the final session, as shadows grew long and other bowlers tired. In the case of Peter Siddle a bout of stomach illness severely restricted his reliability, contributing to the unflattering figures of 13-2-62-0. Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane were accelerating, but Lyon found a one-two punch that deceived the latter in the sort of fashion his Indian counterpart R Ashwin would have been proud about.

First ball of the day's 76th over, Lyon teased Rahane with a stock ball that dipped ahead of a forward prod and looped off pad to David Warner's dive at short leg. The next delivery pitched in a near-identical spot, but a few kilometres faster and flatter and had Rahane going back. The extra pace extracted sharper bounce from the aforementioned footmarks, and stung Rahane's glove for a simple catch to Shane Watson at slip. Many an Australian has fallen this way in India, but seldom an Indian in Australia.

"That's all part of the variation," Lyon said. "We knew if I was able to keep putting the ball in the rough there something was going to give. I'm lucky enough that one kicked there, took the glove and popped up for a nice catch for Watto. It shows a good Test match wicket out there with the variations for spinners. But as we saw if their batters got in it was pretty hard to get out, so credit to Damian [Hough, the groundsman]."

Lyon's earlier days included a stint on Hough's groundstaff in Adelaide, and he has enjoyed the torque available so far. There may be more as the pitch dries further, and in bowling so well on day three, Lyon has provided reason to believe his arrival at the bowling crease will not be quite so wished for by Indian batsmen on day five.