Ashes 2015: Nathan Lyon hopeful of Australia victory in Cardiff
Friday 10 July 2015 20:29, UK
Nathan Lyon is hopeful Australia can complete a record run chase and win the first Investec Ashes Test in Cardiff.
An exciting third day at the SWALEC Stadium saw Australia bowled out for 308 – a deficit of 122 – before an afternoon fightback from the touring attack.
Off-spinner Lyon took 4-75 as England were dismissed second time up for 289, but Australia need 412 to win the series opener, eight runs more than any team has managed in an Ashes victory.
However Lyon was in positive mood, as he told Sky Sports: "If we bat for two days, we hopefully have the result going our way. We're remaining positive and there's no reason why we can't dig deep tomorrow and day five.
"The pitch is still pretty good, just a bit slow. There didn't seem to be too many demons ad hopefully we have learned from our first innings with the bat – we'll see how we go.
"We'll be a little more patient. We had too many thirties, but you are asking a tail-ender here. We'll look to push on and hopefully a couple of the top five can get big hundreds."
Lyon was also full of praise for his fellow bowlers, with Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood all claiming two wickets apiece as England's attacking intent, at times, came back to haunt them.
He added: "Our bowlers definitely learned from bowling in the first innings, when we probably didn't bowl our best.
"We certainly improved that in the second innings. To take 10 wickets out there today in just over two and a half sessions was a good effort. I'm proud of all the boys and now it's up to the batters."
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