Shane Warne. Glenn McGrath. And then, Nathan Lyon.

A wiry, orthodox off-spinner in an age of mystery – a groundsman in a previous life – Lyon now stands alone as Australia’s third-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket. Move aside, Dennis Lillee; the GOAT has snuck through. It’s a tale that has encompassed 357 wickets thus far. Here are six that will live long in the memory.

K Sangakkara (c M Clarke b N Lyon) 10 – Sri Lanka v Australia, Galle, 2011

How would you feel bowling your first ball in Test cricket? You’d think the lyrics of a certain Marshall Mathers might ring in your ears: “Yo, his palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy. There’s vomit on his sweater already: Mom’s spaghetti.” Talk about ruining your whites.

For Lyon there was also the added expectation of being an Australian spinner in the post-Warne era. Many pretenders before him had faded from the scene: Brad Hogg, Nathan Hauritz, Bryce McGain and Steve Smith 1.0, to name a few.

Lyon has tortured Moeen; England’s own off-spinner has been removed by his Australian counterpart on nine occasions in 11 matches.

Seven of those dismissals came in the 2017/18 Ashes and that stranglehold was resumed in the first innings of 2019 Edgbaston Test as Moeen made the fatal decision to leave against Lyon, hoping ever so desperately that the ball would spin past his off stump. Instead, it uprooted it. To make matters worse, Moeen departed to the spinner in the second innings as well before being dropped from the side.