Oz ‘hat-trick hero’ Siddle upheld legends’ die-hard’ Ashes tradition: Roebuck

SYDNEY - Australian hat-trick hero Peter Siddle upheld a great Ashes tradition when he changed the course of a tense first day’s play of the Ashes opener with a single over, noted cricket commentator Peter Roebuck has said.

Siddle picked a sensational six-wicket haul to bowl out England for 260 in their first innings at the Gabba in Brisbane.

“Siddle did more than enter the record books - he upheld a great tradition. At its best, Ashes cricket has always pitted fiery fast bowlers against brave batsmen. In these exchanges the game drops all affectations and becomes a raw, sometimes brutal, confrontation between bat and ball. It is sport stripped naked. It is also its truest voice,” Roebuck wrote in his syndicated column for the Sydney Morning Herald.

“History tells of Spofforth with his bristling moustache and dark gleam, Frank Tyson with his arched back, Harold Larwood with his athletic thunderbolts, Ray Lindwall with his stunning swingers, John Snow with his steep bounce, and others, including Dennis Lillee, Thommo and Fred Trueman.”

“Siddle might not be quite as good as these speedsters but he has one thing in common with them, an absolute refusal to give in. Put a ball in his hand and he will run in as hard as he can and bowl as fast as can. Always he takes the fight to the enemy camp. He did that yesterday and by doing so changed the direction of a day and quite possibly a match and a series,” he added.

Any questions about Siddle’s selection ahead of Doug Bollinger were erased in a dramatic over in the second session, where he dismissed Alastair Cook (67), Matt Prior (naught) and Stuart Broad (naught) to take the fifth Ashes hat-trick by an Australian.

Playing his 18th Test and first since breaking down with a back injury in January, the Victorian fast bowler who turned 26 yesterday finished the innings with amazing comeback figures of 6-54 from 16 overs.

Siddle is the 11th Australia bowler to take a hat-trick in Test matches and the first since Glenn McGrath’s hat-trick against the West Indies in Perth in December 2000, the Australian reports. (ANI)