Australia's veteran spinner Nathan Lyon is one of the best spinners in current era. On Saturday, Lyon achieved a major milestone in the ongoing second Test match against Sri Lanka. Australia are currently playing the second match of the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka at the Galle International Stadium. Lyon started the innings with 549 wickets. Dinesh Chandimal became his 550th victim when Nathan dismissed him on a tossed ball. Beau Webster contributed to Chandimal's catch at mid-off.
Interestingly, Lyon made his Test debut against Sri Lanka at the Galle Stadium in 2011. Lyon has completed 550 wickets in his 136th match. By completing 550 wickets, he has become the third Australian bowler to achieve this feat after Australian legends Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. Shane Warne finished his Test career with 708 wickets while McGrath with 563 wickets.
Lyon is now just 11 wickets away from surpassing McGrath to become Australia's second-highest wicket-taker in this format. The 37-year-old bowler has played a total of 124 matches in the Test format so far and has taken 563 wickets at an average of 21.64.
In the ongoing Test against Sri Lanka, the right-arm spinner has picked up the wickets of Angelo Mathews and Kamindu Mendis and helped the Aussies get a firm grip on the match. After the end of the third day's play, Sri Lanka's score is 211/8. Australia had a 157-run lead in the first innings, in response to which the hosts could take a lead of only 54 runs. Australia won the first Test of this series by 242 runs.