Australia’s post-match parties come in for criticism when they??kept the Ashes at Old Trafford but Nathan Lyon considers his group have”brought a country together.”
Their 185-run win was marked by the tourists on day five, which handed them a 2-1 lead going into Thursday’s fifth Test at The Oval, with a raucous party that was third party.
It started with renditions of the team song’Beneath the Southern Cross’ plus a couple more from a mobile stereo, followed by chants and addresses.
One began with”Who did we beat? England. . .How did we take action? Easy” and quickly transitioned into something considerably less savoury. At one stage Steve Smith had been seen rubbing and wearing a pair of glasses before shadow batting left-handed in the midst of a group huddle.
The obvious conclusion was that he had been parodying England’s Jack Leach, though an alternative narrative was offered he may have been mimicking Australia opener Chris Rogers.
What finally matters is the scoreline and the fact that the urn is remaining their cricketing public and Down Under a source of considerable pride to the Australia team.
“You get the chance to come out here and play cricket for Australia and reflect your family, friends and everybody back home,” Lyon told the Australian press.
“It is quite a special moment a game can bring a nation together. I daresay the boys in that changing room have brought a nation together.
“Right nowit probably has not sunk in, but as a kid growing up, and after I received my own Baggy Green, the greatest target in my career was to win the Ashes away.
“We are 2-1 up and I’d like to go 3-1 up, and when we hold the urn up in The Oval it’s definitely going to be an awesome feeling.”
Lyon, who bowled his side turned into the butt of a running joke in Manchester as fans mocked a botched that would have contributed Australia success a week at Headingley.
Ironically cheered every time he grabbed the ball at the bowler’s end, he appeared to be distinctly unimpressed at the moment, but he had steered out the fans.
“To be honest with you, you notice it to get the initial two or over then it just becomes white noise,” he explained.
“When you’re an expert sportsman, your task is to come out and bowl well, and compete against whoever you are playing. I didn’t feel it or listen to it in the back end so that it does not worry me”
Watch day among the fifth and final Ashes Test live on Sky Sports The Ashes September 12, from 10am on Thursday.
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