I get you don’t like Lyon but you can’t ignore the fact he had a good game. He took 5 wickets for the match so given we have 4 bowlers (+ allrounders) that’s pretty much par. For comparison Jadeja who would be India’s equivalent of Lyon only got 4 wickets and Sundar only got one. Additionally he got Jadeja, Reddy x 2 and Sundar who are all good quality batsman. He doesn’t really get access to much of the top 4 so it’s kind of hard to get them out.MOTM to Lyon for taking the wicket of a number 11 on a fifth day pitch, such a match winner 🙄 Honourable mention to Marsh for doing SFA, which is a significant improvement. Best wishes to both on their retirements. Can't avoid defeat in Sydney carrying these two, unless it rains for a week as usual.
Breaking down the series it’s pretty evident all those previous pitches were highly pace friendly and not offering much for the spinners
Perth: 36 wickets total. 4 to spin (11%). 2 Lyon, 2 Sundar
Adelaide: 30 wickets. 1 to spin (3.3%) by Ashwin. This was when Marsh walked but Snicko shows no edge or any deviation so technically 0.
Brisbane: 27 wickets. 2 to spin (7.4%). 1 Lyon, 1 Head.
Melbourne: 40 wickets. 11 to spin (27.5%). 5 Lyon, 4 Jadeja, 1 Sundar, 1 Head.
So in total: 133 wickets. 18 to spin (13.5%). 8 to Lyon, 2 to Head, 8 to the Indian Spinners.
I only quickly checked so would be good to double check.
So Lyon himself has got the same amount of wickets as the Indian spinners throughout the series and Indian produces high quality spinners generally and no one is degrading the quality of their spinners really.
Additionally he scored like 60 runs in this test which is more than Head, Marsh (I agree with your sentiments on him btw) and Carey. Those 41 runs in the second innings could have been extremely valuable if the indians knew how to bat and also would have worn the indians out a bit more.
I get you aren’t a fan but credit where credits due.