Lyon and Australia have the final word at Galle

An impromptu spin conclave is the best way to describe it. Maybe 15 minutes had passed since Australia had polished off the paltry target and won their first Test series in Sri Lanka since 2011. The handshakes between the two teams were done, as were the hugs between members of the Australian camp.

Before Nathan Lyon could join the rest of his teammates as they waited for the post-match presentation, he was surrounded by every spinner in the Sri Lankan squad. Ramesh Mendis was there, so were Nishan Peiris, Jeffrey Vandersay, Prabath Jayasuriya and even captain Dhananjaya de Silva. All eagerly listening to Australia's premier spinner as he held court. All sitting under the learning tree of the foremost finger-spinner in world cricket. Lyon did take some extra time out with Jayasuriya to share some thoughts with his counterpart, in terms of the left-arm spinner being Sri Lanka's No 1 practitioner of spin.

What a journey it's been for Lyon though. This is where he'd started his Test career as a naive, fresh-faced young kid from the country some 14 years ago. Unsure about his own game. Unsure about himself. Unsure about spin bowling. And here he was back in Galle 4411 days since his Test debut, passing on his well-earned wisdom from his learnings to a bunch of spinners from one of world cricket's premier spin centres.

Not far away from Lyon, the rest of the Australian players were rallying around Marnus Labuschagne. Pats on the back, arms over his shoulder and a lot of laughter. The No 3 had overcome a difficult series with the bat to score the winning runs as the visitors chased down the 75 that they were set after Sri Lanka lost their last two wickets pretty quickly on the fourth morning.

Labuschagne remained unbeaten on 26 with Usman Khawaja at the other end and sealed the deal with a clip off Dimuth Karunaratne, who in a sweet moment, was given the ball in the dying moments of his Test career.

There was no over the top celebration for the Aussies. This was a comprehensive series victory. This was a clinical dismantling of Sri Lanka in the second Test to follow up on a cerebral domination of the hosts in the first last week. But more than anything, it was the perfect coming together of the strategic planning and the systematic preparation the Aussies had put in place in the lead-up to this tour. There was the Dubai camp, where they practiced for hours doing simulation drills with bat and ball. Where batters were put through difficult scenarios on scuffed-up pitches, forced to find ways of scoring runs and breaking through spin barriers. Where the younger spinners, with Lyon in their ear, were allowed to learn the craft of setting up batters on turning pitches, rather than be over-eager to get wickets,

So, it was only deserving to see it all came together and to the fore over the last two weeks in Galle. Each batter seemed to find his own way and put his trust in it. Whether it was Khawaja and Alex Carey with their approach of sweeping and reverse-sweeping the spinners into submission before taking them down over the straight fields, or if it was the likes of Steve Smith and Josh Inglis using their feet to dictate terms to Jayasuriya & Co.

There was the starry return to Test cricket for Matthew Kuhnemann as well. Not only did the left-arm spinner finish as the highest wicket-taker for the series with 16 wickets, he also ended up out-bowling each of the Sri Lankan spinners and at many stages was Australia's main enforcer, even ahead of Lyon. Mitchell Starc's impactful and game-changing spells across the two Tests might not have got the attention they deserve amidst the spin storm, but it was an apt way for the left-arm speedster to finish his own remarkable relationship with Test cricket in Sri Lanka. Starc's eventual numbers in this country being 35 wickets at a staggering average of 16.94.

Total cricket is what Smith had demanded his team to showcase here in Galle, and that's exactly what they did. It was the kind of complete performance that included contributions from almost every player to take the field, regardless of their independent magnitude.

The manner in which they engineered the whitewash though was also an ode to this team's learnings from prior tours to Asia. And you could see them playing out one at a time as Australia strengthened the sway the held over the listless Sri Lankans.

For, you could see that they had learnt how to set the tempo rather than allow the conditions to dictate the tempo for them. They'd learnt to stay patient. They'd learnt how not to panic. They'd learnt how not to miss making the most of every opening and opportunity within the game, however small or minor. They'd learnt how to identify and seize moments, not only as individuals but as a collective. They'd learnt how to identify the rhythm of Test cricket on these pitches and adjust their beat to it, instead of trying to distort it.

Perhaps, most importantly, they'd also provided themselves with a blueprint to win more often in the subcontinent, considering this was their first time since 2006 to have scored multiple victories in a series in this part of the world. A pathway to maybe end their draught on Indian soil in two years' time.

Along the way, they'd learnt to not only win here, but also to dominate the hosts in their own den. To beat them at their own game, and to show them how it's done. Like Lyon had done during the match, and did once the dust had settled.

Incidentally, the 37-year-old spinning great had been robbed of an opportunity for a magical, almost too good to be true, finish to his love affair with Galle as a Test cricketer. He had nearly finished his time on this ground the way he'd started, with a wicket off his last ball, only to be denied a dreamy ending because Beau Webster narrowly failed to get his fingers under the ball at second slip.

But having made an unforgettable first impression here in 2011, Lyon did leave having had the final word. Just like his Australian team.