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During a match in which it appeared this England side were no longer able to play as a team, it was worth remembering why Australia had turned defeat in England into crushing victory here. Every member of the XI had contributed to the task of maintaining a suffocating hold on English throats, none more so than the most anonymous Australian in English eyes, Stuart Clark.

Six weeks ago, most English followers were probably unsure how to spell his surname (was there an "e" or not?), let alone tell what he looked like or whether he should be taken seriously.

Their idea of an Australian support seamer was conditioned by the brutal treatment meted out to Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz in 2005. The inability of these two to hold the line, especially in the Edgbaston Test, represented the first loose nut on which England could work in their attempt to dismantle the Green Machine.

So Clark, who almost missed the start of this series with a strained thigh, has come as a horrible surprise. He may have been the wrong side of 30, but he was the right side of the hill - still ascending, not coming down the other side. His pace wasn't exceptional, but it was brisk enough, and he had the great gifts of bounce and accuracy.

Goddamnit, he was another metronome. It wasn't long before the spelling of his tricky surname had subtly changed: the Australian media started dubbing him McClark.

His three wickets here, which broke the rather soft back of English resistance, exemplified his accuracy. Alastair Cook was bowled through a generous gap. Kevin Pietersen, promoted to number four, was bowled aiming the sort of loose drive that supported the theory that five might be the right position for him in Australia.

And Andrew Flintoff was trapped leg-before to a ball that jagged back enough to force most observers to agree with a decision from umpire Rudi Koertzen, not something that often happened in this match.

Clark's first Test series should have been a warning: as stand-in for the absent Glenn McGrath in South Africa earlier this year, he was a one-man new model army and finished with 20 wickets in three Tests and the man of the series award, but the surfaces there were more obviously conducive to his craft. Things have not always been easy for bowling in this series.

Given another solid performance in Sydney, Clark could be marking his first Ashes series with another series award because his figures are currently unsurpassed by anyone on either side: 21 wickets at 16.8 apiece, and an economy rate of 2.2 runs per over. These are, quite simply, outstanding stats.

He's done the hard yards too, working his way through the top of the order, dismissing Cook and Andrew Strauss, the England openers, three times apiece, plus Bell twice, Paul Collingwood three times, Pietersen once and Flintoff twice.

"He's asking a question of the batsman every ball," Ricky Ponting said. "He hasn't put a foot wrong in eight Tests."

Clark, like Andrew Symonds, has enough of an English background for his role in this series to come laced with that bit of a extra pain. He was born to English parents who had met in India before emigrating to Sydney and he honed his methods with two seasons spent at Middlesex in 2004 and 2005, when he may have first become familiar with Strauss's batting.

Clark, like Mike Hussey, has been a late developer, although Australia might have identified his talents earlier. One of his strengths is that he's got a good perspective on life. He has always had a life beyond cricket. He has worked as a real estate agent and is studying for a masters degree in commerce. His future after sport is mapped out but at this rate Test cricket could detain him for some time yet.