Lyon roars as Australia crush NZ to sweep series

Sydney, January 6

Spinner Nathan Lyon took 5/50 in the second innings as Australia underlined their absolute dominance of New Zealand with a crushing 279-run victory in the third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground to sweep the series 3-0. The hosts were utterly ruthless with bat and ball throughout the series and dismissed New Zealand for 136 having declared on 217/2 after lunch to hand the Black Caps an unlikely victory target of 416.

With captain Kane Williamson and batsman Henry Nicholls missing because of flu bug, New Zealand had no answer to the fearsome pace of Australia’s quicks and the guile of Lyon’s spin. Lyon, aided by paceman Mitchell Starc’s 3/25, cleaned up the tail on a deteriorating pitch to finish with 5/50 to add to his 5/68 in the first innings. After New Zealand had slumped to 22/4, Colin de Grandhomme scored a gritty 52 and BJ Watling 19 off 108 balls and at one stage it looked like a fifth day might be needed for the first time in the series. But with Matt Henry unable to bat because of a broken thumb sustained earlier in the match Lyon ended the resistance under the SCG lights when he had Watling caught by Pat Cummins.

Earlier, David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne had produced more of the prolific batting that has helped carry Australia to five thumping victories in five Tests against Pakistan and New Zealand in their home summer.

Warner secured his 24th Test century with an exhibition of batting on his home ground for 111 not out as the hosts looked to quickly inflate the lead of 263 with which they started the day. Brief scores: Australia: 454 and 217/2 decl (Warner 111*, Labuschagne 59); New Zealand: 256 and 136 (de Grandhomme 52; Lyon 5/50, Starc 3/25). — Reuters

1 New Zealand could not repeat the feat of the triumphant 1985-86 tourists from across the Tasman Sea and will return well beaten after injury and illness ravaged the squad

1 Test win for New Zealand vs Australia in 31 matches since April 1993. The Kiwis have lost 22 and drawn seven in this period. They have now lost 6 consecutive matches vs Oz with their last win coming 9 years ago at Hobart

786 Warner finishes Australia’s five home Tests with 786 runs at an average of 131

7174 Ross Taylor scored 22 runs for New Zealand to take his career tally to 7,174 and overhaul Stephen Fleming (7172) as New Zealand’s highest Test scorer

896 Runs scored by Marnus Labuschagne in the Australian summer. Only two batsmen have scored more in a home season: Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden (twice). Labuschagne, Man of the Series, finished with an average of 112 with four hundreds and three fifties

3 Ten-wicket hauls for Nathan Lyon in Tests. This was also the second-best match figures for an Aussie vs NZ, and the best by a spinner