Australia has India on the verge of breaking point after Young product Nathan Lyon produced a record-breaking performance that has left Steve Smith's team tantalisingly close to retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
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Australia reached stumps on 0-40 on day one, in reply to India's 189, knowing a strong performance with the bat on the second day will all but shut India out of the game.
For the third time in as many innings, India's batsmen folded meekly against Australia's supposedly impotent tweakers, who have defied predictions and made the world's best players of spin look clueless.
Australia's most prolific finger-spinner, Lyon claimed a career-best 8-50 - the best return ever by a foreign bowler on Indian shores - as the home side crumbled to be in a precarious position for the third time in as many innings.
It was Lyon’s first five-wicket haul since the Adelaide Test in 2014 – Australia’s first game after the passing of Phillip Hughes.
This is very special ... I don't think it's really hit me yet.
- Nathan Lyon
"It doesn't top it. Obviously that Test match was special for other reasons, but we don't need to go into that right now," Lyon said.
"This is very special, don't get me wrong, I don't think it's really hit me yet."
He will resume the second innings on a hat-trick.
The pitch at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium is already playing tricks, however the Indians would have fancied posting considerably more in their first innings.
Lyon’s figures are the second best registered by an Australian spinner, behind leg-spinner Arthur Mailey’s 9-121 against England at the MCG in 1921. Mailey’s figures of 9-121 remain the best ever by an Australian.
Lyon’s haul ranks sixth all-time by an Australian in Test cricket, behind Mailey, Glenn McGrath (8-24), Frank Laver (8-31), McGrath again (8-38) and Albert Trott, whose figures of 8-43 were recorded against England in Adelaide way back in 1895.
