Delhi: Whenever Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon is mentioned, his bowling is always talked about. However, here we will talk about his batting, because in the Durban Test against South Africa, Lyon, as a batsman, did something which no number 10 batsman had done before him in Test cricket. Australia won this test by 214 runs.

The 27 runs he scored in the first innings against South Africa in the Durban Test may not have been a big score but were very valuable and a record maker.

Lyon played his fifth longest Test match innings in terms of ball count. Before this, he played 96 balls (vs India 2022/23), 89 balls (vs West Indies 2011/12), 85 balls (vs Pakistan 2014/15), 77 balls (vs India 2012/13) and now 76 balls (vs South Africa 2026).

By making this score, Lyon became the first number 10 batsman in Test cricket to complete 1000 runs batting at this number. Lyon scored 1732 runs in 184 innings of his 144 Test match career. Out of this, Lyon, batting at number 10, scored 1019 runs in 98 innings of 71 Test matches.

These 1019 runs are proof of his tremendous courage and ability to survive in long and difficult test matches for a long time. The top score in the test is 47 and coincidentally he also scored at number 10. Even though he never scored 50 in Tests, his ability to stay at the crease in the lower order and to support others cannot be ignored.

After Lyon, list of most successful batsmen who scored runs while batting at number 10

Stuart Broad (England) 825 runs: Although he is famous for bowling, he also has two fifties made at number 10 in his name.

He was actually a much better batsman for this number but he also has the most number of 0s in this number (19 times).

Neil Wagner (New Zealand) 594 runs: Despite being a bowler, he was a tremendous batsman and despite suffering injuries on his body, he was adept at playing short but effective innings. Career top score 66* is proof of this.

Dale Steyn (South Africa) 568 runs: He played with much better batting technique than a lower order player and could play defensively for a long time.

Played the famous match-winning inning of 76 runs against Australia at MCG in 2008.

Tim Southee (New Zealand) 511 runs: One of the famous players who played 6 despite being number 10. Despite batting at such a low order, he is among the top players with most number of 6s in Test cricket. His innings at number 10 were short but very powerful.

Waqar Younis (Pakistan) 496 runs: Waqar, the famous reverse swing bowler, compensated for the old fashioned 'tail-ender' and technical shortcomings with his strength.

A unique record in his name: scoring more than 1000 runs in Test cricket without playing International 50.

Bishan Bedi (India) 470 runs: Was a classical defensive batting stance. Even though there was no strength in batting, he had the ability to stop the ball for several overs continuously, which came in handy on some occasions.

During his score of 27, Lyon did another amazing thing with the bat. Made a valuable partnership of 134 runs for the 9th wicket with Matt Renshaw, the most successful batsman of this innings and helped Australia reach a big score with this partnership, recovering from the score of 124/6.

Believe me, Nathan Lyon made a 100-run partnership for the first time in his 144th Test match. This was his 236th partnership in Test cricket and thus made a 100-run partnership after such a long career. Earlier, his biggest partnership was 87 runs with Starc at WACA in 2012.

There are many players in Test cricket who do not have a single partnership of 100 runs in their name, but among those who have, no one waited as long as Lyon for their first partnership of 100 runs. In this case, after Lyon, there is Kemar Roach with 193 innings and Ishant Sharma with 157 innings.