‘If I’m honest with you’: Nathan Lyon’s defiant Test reveal after stunning Aussie bowling quartet milestone of 600 wickets

As Nathan Lyon was assessing the dominant position Australia finds itself in three days into the first Test of the highly anticipated series against the Proteas, there was an air of surprise at just how easy it had been for the Aussies.

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To be clear, this has nothing to do with the cricket being played, for Australia was under immense pressure until Matthew Renshaw’s magnificent century and able to post a first-innings lead of 106 in part due to Steve Smith’s magnificent hands.

What did surprise Lyon was how sparse the attendance has been in Durban, something that has frustrated South African fans living in cities that have Test match venues, which in turn has resulted in the Australians escaping a torrent of abuse.

As reported by foxsports.com.au on Day 1 of the Test, when Smith came out to bat in his first Test in the country since the Sandpapergate scandal in 2018, a local fan sitting under the quaint Castle Corner Bar tried to rev up the crowd.

On the other side of the ground a fan was wearing a broadbrimmed hat that had patches of sandpaper attached to it, but that was about it. For a nation with a reputation for being hostile to visiting teams, the 12th man has not come into play here.

“I was expecting more of a crowd, if I’m being honest with you,” Lyon said when quizzed about the lack of hostility.

“Like when you got the Australian cricket team competing against South Africa in South Africa, the number one and number two teams going at it, I was expecting a bigger crowd. But, no, they’ve been they’ve been pretty quiet, to be honest. (There has just been) a lot of kids asking for signatures without manners.”

That is likely to change in Gqeberha and indisputably when the Australians return to Cape Town for the final Test, but if they can continue to play in the fashion they have for the past two days, they might well be in an impregnable position.

There is a long way to go, of course, but it was notable that the key contributors in a disciplined third day performance from Australia were the quintet of survivors from the awful day eight years ago, and each of the champions had reason to smile.

Smith created miracles with his magic hands, with his four catches in the slips seeing him not only surpass Joe Root’s record for catches taken in Tests by a fielder other than the wicketkeeper, but also establish a buffer when moving to 223.

Pat Cummins and his band of merry and seemingly ageless colleagues in Lyon, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood surpassed 600 Test wickets as a quartet, the first to do so in Test cricket’s 149-year history, and by the end of this match could well have a lead of more than 200 on the next best foursome.

Australia will need that to happen to snare victory and with a lead of 139 at stumps, and with a full complement of wickets in hand, will spend the night calculating the target to set the reigning World Test Champions and when to send them back in.

That is barring a collapse, of course, but the pitch does not appear to have enough demons yet to spark a crisis for the tourists, with South Africa’s batting order culpable in throwing their wickets away after getting a start.

As evidence of that, not only Protea made a century, yet they finished only 31 runs of setting a new mark for that happenstance when out for 284 in the 78th over.

“(It was) incredible. It was extremely impressive by the whole bowling unit, how we all worked together and bowled well in partnerships,” he said.

“To have those guys toil all the way and show patience, change to different plans, whatever it may have been, to have that reward out there today, it’s something that I’m very proud of the bowling group. Obviously (there is still) a long way to go in this game, but yeah, (it was a) decent start.

“That is an extremely proud moment for the four of us to tick over 600 Test match wickets as a quartet. That’s pretty bloody special, if you ask me. But they’re the things that I’ll look back at when my career is done, and look at that and go, ‘That’s pretty cool’.”

A word on that? While Lyon ripped his hamstring apart last December and did not really get going against Bangladesh, his athleticism in the field was excellent for a man who is 38 and he bowled with flight and confidence on Sunday.

Having sworn of booze some time ago, the veteran off-spinner is determined to wring every last bit out of himself, saying he had never once doubted he would be able to return to the Australian team despite the severity of the injury last year.

“I’m probably in the best shape of my career if I’m being honest with you,” he said.

“I haven’t had any alcohol for a fair while now, so (I’m) just trying to squeeze as much out of lemon as I possibly can and I feel like there’s a lot of decent cricket ahead of me, that’s for sure.”

There is less certainty as to how much cricket is ahead of Smith, who was absolutely stunning in the slips. But the 37-year-old showed starting agility and even more extraordinary reflexes, with three of his four catches absolutely stunning.

There is a watch, though, with the champion running from the ground wringing his finger after taking a catch from the bowling of Beau Webster, who snared Anrich Nortje to end a stubborn 35-run partnership for the final wicket.

Smith was assessing his index finger, which is not the finger he broke in the WTC Final loss to the Proteas last year, when his pinky finger was damaged after taking a sharp catch. It is understood Cricket Australia has no concerns though.

The anticipation he showed to snare Temba Bavuma and Kyle Verreyne when they were reverse-sweeping Lyon was the stuff of genius, while his leaping catch to end the topscoring innings of David Bedingham off the bowling of Cummins was great.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have him standing at first slip or leg slip for pretty well the majority of my career and I’m extremely grateful for that,” Lyon said.

“He’s an incredible thinker of the game, but the way he moves (and) premeditates those type of catches, they’re freakish. There’s not many people within that change room that will be able to do, to pull off what he does.”