Australia's aim to beat their two opponents, England's batsmen and England's weather, with a flurry of early wickets on day four of the final Ashes Test was left unfulfilled, with rain setting in before the lunch break.
In 17 overs at the Oval on the start of day four, 16 of them with a new ball, Australia snared only two of the four wickets they needed for their second win of a series already won by England. Rain arrived 45 minutes before the scheduled break at 1pm, and was so persistent the umpires elected to bring forward lunch to 12.35pm in the hope of a quicker resumption if the weather improved. 
The skies were still clear in south London when play began on time. England resumed at 6-203, with Jos Buttler on 33 and Mark Wood on 0.
They needed another 129 runs to make Australia to bat again, but the more realistic goal would have been to resist the Australian bowlers long enough for what Buttler quipped was "the great British weather [that] may come and give us a bit of hope [of escaping with a draw]".
Captain Michael Clarke rewarded Siddle's fine bowling in the Test by allowing him to share the second new ball. Siddle justified this faith by striking in the fifth over of the day, when he trapped Mark Wood leg-before for 6.
Umpire Kumar Dharmasena was unconvinced by the appeal, for a delivery that angled into the right-hander and beat the inside-edge, but the Australians' challenge was rewarded when Hawk-Eye predicted the ball would have thudded into leg-stump.
Wood's replacement, Moeen Ali, was given a torrid time, not due to the pace of Siddle's deliveries 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.
Mitchell Johnson's unimpressive start with the new ball at the other end saw him replaced after only two overs. Again, Clarke surprised.
While Mitchell Starc is one of the world's most formidable pacemen with a new ball the captain instead plumped for Mitchell Marsh, who had bowled with great vigour as he did at Edgbaston.
Marsh claimed the wicket of 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 his departure would have irked him and England's hierarchy, even though the series was not on the line.
Stuart Broad's batting has regressed significantly in recent years, but he applied himself well upon joining Ali at the crease.
Siddle aside, Clarke was reluctant to give his bowlers anything longer than three-over spells.
By the second half of the session it seemed the captain was trying to capitalise on the left-handers' susceptibility to short-pitched bowling by recalling Johnson.
It was in that first over of his second spell that the rain began, and progressively got heavier, enough for the umpires to intervene at the end of the following over from Nathan Lyon. Ali and Broad, who shared a vital partnership in the third Test, had been together for almost 10 overs and made 35 runs.
The partnership lacked the overt aggression of Edgbaston, where the 87 they put on was the highest of the match, but it was just what England needed.