Siddle, who was playing his first Test since January after recovering from a stress fracture in his back, changed the complexion of the opening day of the first Test midway through the final session, ending Alastair Cook's stubborn resistance, then dismissing Matt Prior and Stuart Broad first ball. England suddenly bore the pallor of Ashes tourists of old. But Siddle was not about to claim that the dismissal of Broad went exactly to plan. "The crowd were cheering at the top of my run and that pumped me up a bit," he said. "I just wanted to charge in and hit the top of off-stump. Instead I hit him on the boot on the full. The execution wasn't quite there, obviously."
Siddle took six wickets for 54 runs, his Test-best figures, as England were dismissed for 260. This was the ninth hat-trick in an Ashes Test, but the first to be confirmed by an umpires' referral. It was always a faint hope that the decision by the umpire Aleem Dar would be overturned but England deemed it worth a punt and boos rained down from a capacity crowd at The Gabba before TV replays backed Dar's decision and allowed Siddle to celebrate for a second time.
