Nathan Lyon recently recalled the moment when he took his 300th Test wicket and later he was denied to carry the same ball after the match. Though it is a common practice in which a bowler is allowed to carry the ball to home with which they achieve any special milestone.
The infamous Cape Town Test match of the Australia tour of South Africa, 2018 in which Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were involved in ball-tempering during South Africa’s second innings. Later, they all faced future suspensions.
The Australian Off-spinner Nathan Lyon picked up his 300th Test wicket by dismissing Kagiso Rabada with the second new ball. However, the ball-tempering incident took place in the 43rd over of the innings.
I was denied to carry the match ball after the memorable moment – Lyon
During a recent interaction with the Daily Telegraph, Nathan Lyon recalled this moment and how he later went to ask the match referee David Boon about the same.
“Kagiso Rabada stumped was my 300th wicket. It was at the Cape Town Test. I haven’t seen that ball since, unfortunately. Yeah, I think with everything that happened that game, they took it to have a look at it all,” he said
“It was actually David Boon. I bumped into him on the balcony of the team hotel in the Covid summer of 2020-21 and being an ICC match referee he reached out to the ICC through his work and tried to find it, and apparently it’s gone missing. Don’t know where it is. There’s been no more correspondence. It is what it is,” Lyon added.
The Cape Town Test match will be remembered as one of the darkest moments in Australian cricket history regardless of Nathan Lyon’s memorable achievement.
At the moment it’s just a blank space, says Nathan Lyon
Nathan further elaborated how his wife has put all the milestone balls and achievements on a wall at home, he also pointed out that place for the 300th Test match ball is still empty.
“My wife has done an amazing piece of artwork where she’s put all the milestone balls or achievements on a wall at home which looked pretty special. To see the success I’ve been able to have and understand that all the hard work can pay off. I’ve collected from the start,” said Lyon.
“It goes back a long way but it’s something I’m proud about and now my girls are starting to get old enough to ask questions about what’s this and what’s that. I am grateful for that but at the end of the day I guess I can just throw a ball in there and say it’s the 300th and no one will know, will they? At the moment it’s just a blank space,” he added.
The Australian bowler is eighth all time in Test wickets list with 530 wickets under his name along with 24 five-wicket hauls in 129 appearances for Australia.
He will be back in action with the first Test of the upcoming high voltage Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which is set to be played from November 22 at Optus Stadium, Perth. Both Australia and India will be looking to consolidate their place for the World Test Championship Final in England next year.