We can be heroes on day five, says Lyon

ADELAIDE: Australia off-spinner Nathan Lyon has revealed he reassured Shaun Marsh about his ability against off-spin after his first innings dismissal by R Ashwin, while being bullish about Australia’s chances entering the final day of the Adelaide Test.

He declared that Marsh and Travis Head were well placed to be the “heroes” of a 323 chase, requiring 219 to win with six wickets in hand.In addition to his discussion with Marsh, Lyon said that the captain Tim Paine had invoked the memories of the great Dubai escape in October in a post-play address to the home side.

“We just spoke about Dubai just then,” Lyon said.“We still believe we can win this, and that’s the best thing. We still believe we’re in this game, it’s just about coming out tomorrow, winning the first ball, first over, first hour, just breaking it down, very simple,” he said.

“We need to not complicate things, enjoy ourselves, compete hard and fight our backsides off. It was actually Tim, just saying we’ve had that belief before when our backs have been against the wall, but we’ve got a massive sniff here, I believe anyway, in this Test match.”

“I was speaking to him (Shaun) before; he’s got the belief he can come out and make a hero of him and Travis tomorrow. He spoke to me about playing offspin and I said ‘Shaun, you’ve just got to back yourself, you’re one of the best batters in the world and you’ve played me enough in the nets, you know how to play offspin’.”