England suffer heavy defeat in fifth Test but seal 3-2 Ashes series win

Clean up: Siddle claimed the wickets of Moeen Ali and Stuart Broad after Sunday's rain delay
(Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
David Clough23 August 2015

England descended to defeat by an innings and 46 runs in the fifth Investec Test to narrow the margin of their 2015 Ashes series success to 3-2.

The hosts lost their last four wickets for 83 runs either side of a two-hour rain break on day four at The Oval, and were bowled out for 286.

They knew of course, irrespective of their performance in this epilogue Test, that they would be holding the urn up to a packed crowd at the conclusion.

But there was a hollower ring to celebrations for Alastair Cook's team, after Moeen Ali was last out to Peter Siddle to confirm them significantly second-best here.

Siddle (four for 35) made the first breakthrough of an increasingly overcast day, under floodlights in his second over with the second new ball.

He beat Mark Wood's forward prod and overturned an initial not-out lbw decision on DRS.

Jos Buttler had worked hard the previous evening, alongside Cook, to regain form in the attempted rearguard.

But he gave it all away disappointingly eight short of his 50, to the 107th ball he faced, when he chipped Mitch Marsh on the up to a tumbling mid-off.

In the match context, it was a strange mode of dismissal.

Moeen and Stuart Broad then batted for 10 overs together - long enough for the forecast rain to arrive and delay the inevitable.

But Broad lasted only five more minutes, on the resumption, bowled off-stump after missing a drive at the admirable Siddle.

The last act of an oddly uneven series then came when Moeen wafted an edge behind off the same bowler.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in