Nathan Lyon loves the Adelaide Oval’s centre square. He was once part of the ground-staff here and kept a close watch on the pitch. Now he revels upon it, bagging wickets by the heap. The Australian offspinner, who garnered six scalps during India’s second innings, believed that the host could spring a surprise in the remainder of the first Test.
“They have a world-class spinner, so it’s going to be a great challenge for our batters. But the wicket is good enough for us to really knuckle down and we have the belief that we can score these runs,” Lyon told reporters here on Sunday. “It was actually Tim (Paine) just saying we have had that belief before when we had our backs to the wall. We have got a massive sniff here in this Test,” the spinner added.
‘Confident’ Shaun Marsh
Shaun Marsh and Travis Head have to shepherd a tough chase and Lyon backed them to the hilt: “I was speaking to Shaun before and he has got the belief that he can come out and make a hero of himself and Travis [on Monday]. He spoke to me about playing off-spin and I said ‘Shaun, you have to back yourself, you are one of the best batters in the world and you have played me enough in the nets, you know how to play off-spin.’ I think Shaun’s quite confident.”
Asked about Aaron Finch’s failure to ask for a review against his dismissal, Lyon supported the opener: “I don’t think he was going to get away with it. I have spoken to the third umpire (Chris Gaffaney) who said it was out or there was inconclusive evidence to overturn the decision. Finchy’s fine and it’s been a great learning curve for Aaron.”
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