Sometimes, even legends need a moment to adjust.

Nathan Lyon did not just take a wicket in Adelaide on Thursday morning against England. He crossed a line that had stood for nearly two decades — and did it with a delivery so perfect that it briefly unsettled one of Australia’s greatest fast bowlers in the commentary box.

Lyon’s dismissal of Ben Duckett early on the second day of the Adelaide Test carried history with it.

With that ball, the off-spinner moved past Glenn McGrath to become Australia’s second-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket, behind only Shane Warne.

For McGrath, who was on commentary duty for the BBC, the moment arrived with uncomfortable familiarity.

Lyon had already drawn level with McGrath’s tally earlier in the over, when Ollie Pope fell cheaply. Two balls later, Duckett faced what many off-spinners spend a career chasing: a delivery that pitched on a teasing length, drew the front foot forward, spun sharply past the bat and clipped the off stump.

Duckett stood still, briefly confused, before walking off. In the commentary box, Adam Gilchrist summed it up simply: Duckett looked “bewildered.”

McGrath, momentarily, looked no less so.

Cameras caught him lifting his hands to his head, then half-rising from his chair as if to throw it aside, before stopping himself. The reaction was theatrical, but the smile that followed told the fuller story. Records are meant to fall, and Lyon had earned this one properly.

For context, McGrath had held that position since retiring in 2007, finishing with 563 wickets from just over one hundred Tests.

Lyon surpassed him in his one hundred and forty-first match, having spent months stuck on the same tally amid selection frustrations and limited opportunities, especially in day-night Tests dominated by pace.

His return in Adelaide was decisive. Two wickets in his first over, history rewritten, and a reminder that Test cricket has its own sense of timing.