Australia beat England by 10 wickets to win the fifth Test in Sydney on Friday to complete the first 5-0 Ashes series whitewash in 86 years.
England capitulated on the fourth morning to score just 147 runs in their second innings to leave the Australians needing 46 runs for victory to claim a slice of history.
Opener Matthew Hayden hit the winning run and finished 23 not out, and Justin Langer was not out 20.
Paceman Glenn McGrath, playing in his 124th and last Test match along with other retirees Shane Warne and Langer, claimed three wickets to mop up the England innings to finish with 3-38.
England’s hopes of mustering enough runs to give their bowlers something to bowl at in Australia’s final innings nosedived when star batsman Kevin Pietersen was out on the third ball of the day on his overnight score of 29.
It precipitated a collapse and England’s tail-end fell apart to gift-wrap victory for Australia early on the fourth day of the five-day Test.
It was Australia’s first Ashes series clean sweep since Warwick Armstrong’s team vanquished England 5-0 in 1920/21 in Australia.
Australia retrieved the Ashes they lost in England in 2005 with victory in the third Perth Test before Christmas and had the remaining incentives of the series whitewash to complete and sending out retiring champions McGrath, Warne and Langer as winners.
Warne finished his 145-Test career with 708 wickets, the most in Test cricket, and McGrath ended his 124 Tests with 563 wickets, the most by a fast-bowler.
They also clocked up 1 001 wickets between them in the 104 Tests they played together.
Warne and McGrath soaked up the acclaim as they left the ground for the last time, holding their arms aloft and waving to the cheering crowd to signal the end of a golden era for Australian cricket. — Sapa-AFP