Australia close in on fifth Test win

On the day that cricket mourned the passing of Australia’s penultimate Invincible, the ever-gracious Arthur Morris, forgotten seamer Peter Siddle returned to the scene of the late great’s most famous innings and did an ‘Arthur’.

Morris’s name has become Australian cricket shorthand for notable performances that are overlooked by history because they unfurled in the shadow of more significant events, as was the case when the opener scored a peerless 196 in the 1948 Oval Ashes Test.

Quick Single: Vale Arthur Morris

Which is only ever remembered for Don Bradman’s final-innings, second-ball duck that the immaculately implacable Morris watched with equanimity from the non-striker’s end.

Image Id: ~/media/032DC57956E342B6BBFD62AF710E2115

Siddle celebrates the wicket of Lyth // Getty Images

Given that the 2015 iteration of Ashes at The Oval is, like its ‘Invincible’ tour predecessor 67 years earlier, a dead rubber because of the series being emphatically decided before the final act, it’s safe to assume it will be filed in folklore simply under ‘Michael Clarke’s farewell Test’.

With perhaps ‘Chris Rogers’ finale’ as a means of cross-referencing.

Quick Single: Hazlewood will be back, says McGrath

But anyone who cares to dig a little deeper than the headline and examine the scoresheet of a match Australia was never supposed to win, but seem set to do so provided the weather and catches hold over the next two days, will notice the remarkable third day contribution of Siddle.

Who, like his skipper and his late-blooming opener, might also be making his last appearance under a Baggy Green cap.

Players' tribute to Michael Clarke

England will play out the last act of an at times unfathomable narrative tomorrow when they resume at 6-203, still 129 adrift of Australia who have their second innings still to come although the rain forecast for Sunday afternoon and all day Monday might prove the eventual victor.

Regardless of the final outcome, today hosted an intriguing backdrop to a most unremarkable feature act.

Johnson takes final two first-innings wickets (Aus only)

As Mitchell Johnson flattened the final two wickets of England’s sub-par first innings this morning and Nathan Lyon subtly and sedately spun his way through an obdurate top-order in a laborious second that directly followed-on, Siddle produced one of the more notable Ashes spells.

Bald bowling figures of 1-14 are never going to excite man of the match adjudicators, or even front bar cricket bores who like to bang on about how they were there the day that something marginally beyond the ordinary took place.

But the fact those 14 runs were chiselled from 16 overs, which represents the most parsimonious return by an Australia bowler in an innings (sending down more than 15 overs) since another Invincible Bill Johnston’s 0-14 from 18 overs at Trent Bridge in 1953 makes it an achievement of merit.

Image Id: ~/media/55FEE173DA0D4CBA9E01F4F9A7F6079A

Siddle was again miserly and incisive // Getty Images

Made more so by a back story that reveals just four Test appearances for Siddle in the past 18 months, being overlooked for the first four matches of this Ashes series despite conditions often tailor-made for his disciplined seam-up bowling, and scorn surrounding his inclusion for this final match.

The latter coming most volubly from his fellow Victorian and ex-Test leg-spinner Shane Warne who believes, on an almost hourly basis via television commentary, that the younger, faster, less experienced Pat Cummins should have been preferred for The Oval.

Quick Single: Clarke's final interview as captain

If Warne is to be believed, his thoughts were also echoed by skipper Clarke and coach Darren Lehmann.

But if the rationale for Siddle’s inclusion when the playing XI was confirmed on Thursday – that he brought much-needed control to a seam attack that had been too regularly profligate in recent Tests, then selection chair Rod Marsh (who allegedly plumped for Siddle) can feel belatedly vindicated.

Despite being the third seamer, Siddle has been used as the fourth-string bowler in England’s first innings, where he picked up a comparatively indulgent 2-32 from 13 overs, and again in the second when Clarke subjected them to follow-on 332 runs in deficit.

On a day when the sun also made an unexpected cameo return and summer temperatures in the UK crept beyond 25c for the first time since the two-day ‘heatwave’ of early July, that decision was looking ambitious within half an hour of England returning to the crease.

Image Id: ~/media/C33FFE8C70FF46A5A602CD6E7083A36F

Ali again frustrated the Australians // Getty Images

The manner in which the new Ashes holders were reduced to 8-92 on Friday evening had more to do with tired minds than tested techniques, and the 42 runs that allrounder Moeen Ali and tailender Mark Wood happily collected against fresh bowlers this morning showed The Oval pitch was no demon.

So when Alastair Cook and his horribly out-of-form opening partner Adam Lyth found few troubles against the new ball even if scoring runs was clearly not a priority, Clarke threw it to Siddle with the hope that he might build some pressure, maybe even jag a wicket.

Which he did on both counts by bowling three consecutive maidens while Lyon did likewise from the other end, at which point it all became too much for Lyth whose departure for 13 crowned the leanest Ashes series (115 runs at 12.77) for an opening batsman since Graham Gooch almost 35 years ago.

As he has done throughout a career which, at age 30 and with a regeneration of Australia’s Test stocks looming, may not have much longer to run, Siddle kept running in and keeping them honest.

Image Id: ~/media/71F129DE9E5E4B3FA51D051EEBFFBD5B

Lyon was again very effective // Gety Images

By lunch, he possessed school cricket figures of 1-1 from six overs and in tandem with Lyon was responsible for nine of the previous 12 overs yielding no score for an England batting card that had clearly shelved its new ‘positive, attacking’ mantra now that the urn was regained.

Come tea, Siddle’s analysis read 1-7 from 10 overs and England were grinding along at 3-123 having lost Ian Bell for 13 when he fended a flyer from Mitchell Marsh to second slip, and Joe Root  whose rush of enthusiasm to play a scoring shot led him to top edge a hook to fine leg.

But Cook endured, the challenge of batting until forecast rains arrives tomorrow afternoon squaring perfectly with his game that has never overflowed with strokes and a scoreline that cannot see his team surrender the series.

Any sour taste he might have experienced in falling to part-time spinner Steve Smith for 85 in the day’s final minutes will be cleansed at tomorrow’s likely trophy presentation.

Smith removes Cook late (Aus only)

In the half-hour that followed tea, Jonny Bairstow guided the final delivery of Siddle’s 13th over through Australia’s slips cordon to third man to inflict the first boundary of the innings against the bowler’s name.

And until Lyon nipped out Bairstow (via a sharp short-leg catch from a hefty inside edge) and Ben Stokes (courtesy of a headstrong drive that squirted to slip) it stood as one of few highlights of a day that will live in the memory of few who sat patiently through it.

Image Id: ~/media/117493779A30425EAF220FEAC69948D7

Cook couldn't quite see out the day // Getty Images

Australia returns to The Oval tomorrow with the reappearance of usual UK summer weather looming as the steepest stumbling block to sending out Clarke and Rogers as winners.

Cook will lead the celebrations uncorked when he and his team take possession of the (admittedly replica) Ashes urn.

And Siddle will be there in the background, as his skipper and his Victoria teammate Rogers are applauded warmly into retirement, and questions about the future of others in the team aged 30 and over will hang lingering in the air like the final throaty refrains of ‘Jerusalem’.

But somewhere at The Oval where so much history has been writ and the truly remarkable individual efforts will always live on, the spirit of Arthur Morris will silently raise a glass of Hunter Valley red and – accompanied by that mischievous smile – honour the latest addition to the celebrated lineage of Test match ‘Arthurs’.