Ashes 2013-14: Australia's Nathan Lyon the latest beneficiary of England's inability to handle spin But a ripping, fizzing, bamboozling spinner he is not. The havoc he wreaked was not much to do with him or Australia. It was mainly about England. He was bowling at batsmen who were not only unable to fathom a sensible approach to an orthodox off-spinner operating unusually round the wicket, but were also conscious that Mitchell Johnson was lurking in the outfield flexing his arms and licking his lips and sniffing blood again. They acted like the little pigs panicked by the presence of the big bad wolf and running straight into the clutches of his cubs. Lyon first came up with his round the wicket ploy to right handers in Durham. It maximizes his drift away from the bat, and distorts batsmen's perspectives. Batting is really GCSE level geometry, working out the cosine of the hypotenuse, or rather which angles of shot is most effective against bowling from various different points. Usually right hand batsmen look to turn right hand off-spinners with the spin, to the leg-side. Lyon corrupts this orthodox philosophy with his mainly non-spinning round-the-wicket approach. From this angle he makes the ball drift away from the right hander, compromising the shot 'with the spin," especially if there is none. This approach was useful in Durham dismissing both Pietersen and Ian Bell as they were deceived by the angle, and the same thing happened here. Bell was especially culpable, trying an extravagant, wristy flick to his first ball which floated gently away from an off-stump line. He finished up reaching for it and ladling a simple catch to mid-off from the front edge of the bat. It was a lame dismissal, a speciality of Bell when confronted by spin early on. This is one of many reasons why he would be far better off at No 3, something many of us have grown tired of suggesting. Lyon's 'drift" is perhaps underestimated, as Warne's used to be. He often got wickets not by prodigious spin but this curve in flight which meant the ball did not finish up on the line the batsman expected it to be. The effect was either to make him tucked up and too close to the ball or causing him to reach for it as it slid away from the line of his intended shot. The former happened to Ben Stokes whose lofted drive became cramped and miscued and ended up in a simple catch, and the latter to Bell who poked a dolly to a surprised Johnson at mid off. The spectre of Johnson certainly contributed to Tim Bresnan's futile heave at Lyon, and Stuart Broad's speculative drive. You could smell their apprehension. Pietersen completed Lyon's five-wicket haul, skewing a partly excusable attempt to deposit him into the stand with only Anderson and Monty Panesar for company. It tarnished an otherwise sensible and resourceful contribution from England's No 4. When you factor in Lyon's ungainly but highly effective contribution with the bat in the morning, adding 40 precious runs with Brad Haddin with a combination of hoicks and scythes and occasional authentic shots, it was quite a day for Australia's new leader of the team victory song. If his batting colleagues do not exhibit the same lamentable fragility as England's he will be leading it again sometime soon.