Premier off-spinner Nathan Lyon is extremely satisfied to have led Australia's fightback and resurge on top through an Indian collapse in the first innings on Day 3 of the ongoing Perth Test.
Lyon is delighted to have run through the visitors batting line up after taking the vital breakthrough of Ajinkya Rahane right at the start of play as Australia got an invaluable lead of 43 runs bowling India all out for 283.
Both Virat Kohli(82*) and Ajinkya Rahane(51*) had earlier helped India reach a strong position at 173/3 by the end of play on Day 2 and were expected to further continue the good work. But then the hosts picked up the remaining seven wickets, allowing only another 111 more runs to their overnight total with Lyon picking up a 14th Test five-wicket haul.
"I thought we were well off in the first innings of this game, so to bowl India out for 283 was a pretty good effort especially when you've got someone who scores a big hundred," said Lyon afterwards, having returned with figures of 5/67, "So it gives us a lot of confidence that we weren't at our best and we were able to take 10 wickets for 280."
"Whatever we get to in a lead, we'll just have to defend that and we're confident we can learn from our past innings, get better, and it's exciting times for the Australian bowlers. I'd rather be in the Australian change rooms than the Indian change rooms," he added.
Australia further piled on the agony over the Indians by stretching their lead to 175 through to stumps with another six wickets remaining and Lyon is quite happy with the quality of cricket that has been on display.
Lyon further stated, "The Indians have got a world class bowling attack as well, so we expect nothing less from their bowling attack but I was a little bit nervous watching it out there but I'm a nervous character waiting to bat anyway."
"So just to see the good quality of Test cricket being played that made me quite happy. It's exciting, gets your adrenaline going as a player, there's nothing better than seeing good, hard Test cricket," he signed off.
(Inputs from cricket.com.au)
