If a picture can paint a thousand words then what did the image of Stuart Clark and Brett Lee sitting side by side watching on as Australia struggled to eliminate England's tail say?
The owners of 400 Test wickets between them, Clark and Lee are yet to bowl a ball in this Ashes series for reasons beyond their control.
Lee has been injured but is eyeing a return in the fourth Test starting next Friday, while Clark - Australia's leading wicket-taker from the 2006-07 whitewash - mystifyingly cannot get a game.
In their absence, Australia has bowled England out just three times from nearly 479 overs.
How Ponting must have wished he had Lee's 150kmh thunderbolts at his disposal on that final day in Cardiff.
Lee began the tour desperate to prove there was still life in his international career.
A side strain suffered before the first Test has not allowed him to mount a compelling case.
It has, however, allowed Ben Hilfenhaus to be the find of the tour.
But as Ricky Ponting's men stagger into the second half of their increasingly grim Ashes campaign, no Australian bowler is yet to reproduce anything remotely as venomous as Lee's 5-21 in 40 balls in Worcester.
Admittedly, that was against inferior opposition in the form of an England second XI.
Though it would be fair to suggest Lee, then playing in only his second four-day game in six months, was yet to hit his straps.
That will again be the case should selectors ignore his lack of match practice and pick him at Headingley.
But they may be forced to should Australia not hold on at Edgbaston and need to win both the final two Tests to retain the urn.
If not, Lee will be able to use a two-day tour game against Kent in a fortnight to get some miles into his legs heading into a possible decider at The Oval.
Clark, however, is ready to run as demonstrated in Northampton when he out-bowled Peter Siddle and Nathan Hauritz.
As the middle session on day four again showed, Australia desperately needs the stability and constant menace his stump-to-stump line provides.
Leaving him out would be like locking the best two-miler in the land in a stable on Melbourne Cup day.
Siddle, the man currently ahead of Clark, leaked nearly seven runs an over when Australia was looking to ram home its advantage on the fourth day.
His figures of 3-89 only partially masked an inability to build pressure but will fail to silence Clark's supporters.
They must be wondering what more has to go wrong before selectors finally realise that Clark in England is a case of the right horse on the right course.