As the Pat Cummins-led tourists thrashed Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in the opening match at the Galle International Stadium on Friday, Nathan Lyon of Australia entered the top 10 list of Test wicket-takers worldwide.
When Sri Lanka was dismissed for 113 runs in the second innings, the 34-year-old Lyon claimed four wickets, leaving Australia needing just five runs to win. Only the fourth ball of the first over was used by the visitors to complete the formalities.
In the meantime, Lyon passed Shane Warne of Australia and joined Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka, Anil Kumble, Ravichandran Ashwin, and other notable Test wicket-takers from India and Sri Lanka.
In the first Test, Lyon claimed nine wickets overall over the two innings. With 436 Test victories under his belt, the Australian is only three wickets behind Ravichandran Ashwin of India and former South African tearaway bowler Dale Steyn.
Lyon followed up his 5/90 performance on day one, when Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat, with an equally devastating performance on day three, when the hosts' attempt to mount a counterattack failed.
In their second innings, Dimuth Karunaratne's team could only bat for 22.5 overs—the smallest amount of time ever in a Test—as Lyon claimed four victims.
The first of the four was Karunaratne himself, with Alex Carey pouncing on his bottom edge. Mitchell Swepson caught Kusal Mendis' top edge to become Lyon's second wicket, and then he dismissed Ramesh Mendis to reach 435 Test wickets.
With the dismissal of Mendis, Lyon moved up to position 10 on the list, surpassing Indian fast-bowling all-rounder Kapil Dev, while the dismissal of Niroshan Dickwella raised the legendary Australian to position 436.
After his performance on Friday, Lyon joins fast-bowler Glenn McGrath and Warne (708) as third Australians to crack the top 10. (563). At the same location where he made his Test debut in 2011 and claimed Kumar Sangakkara with his first delivery, Lyon now joins the club.
While bowlers like Ashwin and Murali have used the doosra and carrom balls, respectively, to torture the top batsmen in the world, Lyon has distinguished himself through minor differences in the bounce of his standard stock ball.
Friday's four-wicket haul by Lyon helped Australia win their first Test match in Galle in eleven years.
David Warner made sure the game was over fast by scoring two boundaries in only four balls to put the game to an end.
On July 8, the teams will reassemble at the same location for the second Test.
Brief scores: Sri Lanka 212 and 113 in 22.5 overs (Dimuth Karunaratne 23; Nathan Lyon 4/31, Travis Head 4/10) lost to Australia 321 and 10 for no loss in 0.4 overs (David Warner 10 not out).