Nathan Lyon’s spell in the first innings against West Indies in Perth puts him in the ninth spot in the all-time Test wicket-takers list.
Lyon now has 440 wickets, taking him past South Africa great Dale Steyn’s tally of 439 Test scalps. The ace off-spinner snared the wicket of Jason Holder to go level with Steyn before dismissing Kemar Roach towards the end of the West Indies innings to become the ninth-highest wicket-taker in Test history.
Lyon now needs three more wickets to go past fellow off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who is likely to play against Bangladesh in the Test match starting this Sunday, 4 December.
Apart from Lyon, Pat Cummins reached a milestone of his own, becoming the 19th Aussie bowler to pick up 200 Test wickets. He did so by getting rid of the resolute Kraigg Brathwaite, which spelt the beginning of the end for West Indies.
It was a day that belonged to Australia as the bowlers wrapped up the West Indies innings for 283. Debutant Tagenarine Chanderpaul got to his fifty before Josh Hazlewood got the breakthrough Australia needed.
Jermaine Blackwood, Holder and Shamarh Brooks all got starts but failed to convert them into big scores. Australia were dangerous in their 18-over spell with the second new ball which accounted for six Windies wickets.
With a first-innings lead of 315 runs, Australia had the option to enforce the follow-on but instead chose to bat again. It was a rare failure for Usman Khawaja but David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne took Australia to stumps at 29/1, leading by 344 runs.
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