Lyon roars as Australia crush New Zealand to sweep series

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Spinner Nathan Lyon took 10 wickets for the match as Australia underlined their absolute dominance of New Zealand with a crushing 279-run victory in the third test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Monday 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 for two after lunch to hand the Black Caps an unlikely victory target of 416.

New Zealand had arrived with some confidence they could repeat the singular feat of the triumphant 1985–86 tourists from across the Tasman Sea but will return well beaten after injury and illness ravaged the squad.

With captain Kane Williamson and batsman Henry Nicholls missing because of a 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.

Australia 454 (Labuschagne 215, Smith 63, Wagner 3-66, de Grandhomme 3-78) and 2 for 217 dec (Warner 111*, Labuschagne 59) beat New Zealand 256 (Phillips 52, Lyon 5-68, Cummins 3-44) and 136 (de Grandhomme 52, Lyon 5-50, Starc 3-25) by 279 runs