Nathan Lyon plotted Ajinkya Rahane's dismissal with Smith at tea

The balance of the conclusive Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy was pretty much in India’s favour after batting really tough for the first two sessions. But they lost all the momentum in the post-tea session with Nathan Lyon putting up an aggressive display of off-spin bowling. He was able to extract surprising bounce from the surface and that saw him end the day with 4 wickets.

He had a particular plan against India’s stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane. The Mumbai-lad is a good player against spin and likes to play the sweep shot to negate the effect of the off-spinner was denied any opportunity to sweep and that kept him restricted.

Lyon came over the wicket against Rahane and varied his pace and bowled over spin to get purchase from the wicket. It paid off as the right-hander edged one to his Australian counterpart Steve Smith at slips towards the end of the day.

“It was a bit of a tactic. If you looked at the way the Indians have been playing me, especially Ajinkya, he has been sweeping me a lot. My plan was to come over the wicket and try and get him not to sweep me so that I can I can bring my stock ball to be more effective. It worked well. I spoke to Steve Smith about that at tea and was happy with the way it came out in the end,” Lyon explained the plan devised against Rahane.

After two days in the game, it is the visiting team that has the upper hand with the Indians 6 down still carrying a 52-run deficit. They are supposed to be batting fourth in the game and unless they manage a lead will be tough for them to pull things back.

“I reckon it is an unbelievable feeling to be pretty evenly poised after day two. I know we probably left a few run out there but to have India 240 for 6 odd after a pretty good day in the field, I am quite happy to be honest. Coming over here, everyone wrote us off and to be in this position in the last Test, one-all and pressure slightly on India is fantastic,” Lyon said.

The wicket is still good to bat on with the occasional ball bouncing high or staying low.

“As the day progressed, it started to show a little bit more variations with bounce and spin, but I don’t think it has changed too much. As Australian bowlers, I was pretty proud of all of us out there. It s hard work playing cricket over here but I thought the way we went about it and bowled well in partnerships and tried to dot them up and tried to build pressure on India was fantastic.”

Lyon likes when the wicket offers bounce and Dharamsala reminded him of home. He had this feeling that he was bowling on an Australian pitch. Bounce helped him ace the batsmen who otherwise managed to play him well.

“After bowling a couple of overs before lunch, I sat down and thought about what it (pitch) is similar to and it was closer to a home wicket where I can try and generate the bounce. Bounce is my biggest weapon by virtue of which I am getting guys caught at bat-pad and slips.

“I went back to knowing how I bowl, which is probably the best way. Just backing my skill and enjoy the challenge of playing the best side in the world in their home conditions.”

Earlier in the day the Aussie pacers Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins kept the Indian batters in control and created pressure with some top class bowling. For Lyon Cummins’ display was “world class” and Hazlewood matches him at par.

“I think he really showed he is world-class. I think Josh Hazlewood has been the same. There hasn’t been much life for the big quicks but the way Josh and Patty (Cummins) went about it has been exceptional. It shows the class of those two individuals. They work really well together and it’s great signs for Australian cricket. It s exciting to see Patty Cummins back and bowling fast.”