London: Australia eventually overcame their two opponents, England's batsmen and England's weather, to send retiring duo Michael Clarke and Chris Rogers off with a morale-boosting victory to end their failed Ashes campaign.
Peter Siddle continued his stunning return to the team by taking three of the four wickets Australia needed at the Oval on the final day, which was prolonged by rain halting play between 12.15pm and 3pm.
When play resumed Australia needed only 26 minutes to snare the last two wickets they needed, both claimed by Siddle. The Victorian's last wicket, of Moeen Ali for 35, was his fourth for the innings. It ended England's second innings on 286, sealing victory for Australia by an innings and 46 runs.
The result left England with a 3:2 series victory. It was the 11th time in Ashes history, and first since 2002-03, where the team guaranteed of a series win has lost the final Test.
Australia had hoped for a flurry of early wickets on day four of the final Test at the Oval, aided by having the second new ball from the second over of the day, would render the threat of bad weather irrelevant. They were only half-way to their goal of four wickets when rain intervened 17 overs and 75 minutes into the day's play and stopped play for two hours and 45 minutes.
By the time the rain eventually cleared and groundstaff had removed all of the surface water it was 3pm.
Ali and Stuart Broad had served England well before the break — they had survived for almost 10 overs — but their partnership lasted only five minutes after the rain interruption, leaving England nine wickets down and needing another 69 runs to make Australia bat again.
Siddle began the day by entrenching his status as the stand-out bowler of the match, the first he had been chosen for in this series, by trapping Mark Wood leg-before for six in the fifth over of the day, after successfully challenging a failed leg-before appeal. It justified Clarke's decision to give him the new ball, when in recent years the only chance he has had to take the new ball came either in a two-man pace attack or when a fellow fast bowler was injured.
Wood's replacement, Ali, was given a torrid time, not due to Siddle's pace but where they landed. In the first full over Ali faced from the right-armer he edged just short of first slip, had a delivery pass just outside his outside edge as he sought to block and then just past his inside edge — and over the stumps — as he tried again.
Mitch Johnson's unimpressive start with the new ball at the other end saw him replaced after only two overs. Again, Clarke surprised. While Mitch Starc is one of the world's most formidable pacemen with a new ball the captain instead plumped for Mitch Marsh, who had bowled with great vigour as he did at Edgbaston.
Marsh claimed the wicket of Jos Buttler in his second over, although it was admittedly due less to his guile than it was to the Englishman's awful shot. Given the circumstances it was unfathomable why he tried to drive on the up, offering a chance that the lanky Starc did well to take at ankle height at wide mid-off.
The wicketkeeper's contribution of 42 from 107 deliveries was easily his best for the series — not a huge achievement, admittedly — yet the manner of departure would have irked him and England's hierarchy, even though the series was not on the line.
Broad's batting has regressed significantly in recent years, but he applied himself well on joining Moeen Ali at the crease. When rain stopped play they had added 35 runs. They managed only five more after the resumption, as Broad departed for 11 as his off-stump was sent cartwheeling by Siddle, who had deservedly been entrusted by Clarke to start proceedings in the middle session from the Vauxhall End.
Siddle's final wicket, having Ali caught behind, saw him finish with 4-35 from 24.4 overs, including 12 maidens. Given he feared his Test career could have been over when he was passed over for Trent Bridge it was an ideal way for him to argue he should remaining part of Australia's battery of fast-bowlers.
