January 6, 2002	Sunday	Shawwal 21, 1422

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SYDNEY, Jan 5: Australia thrashed South Africa by 10 wickets on Saturday to win the third and final Test and complete their first series cleansweep over the Proteas in 70 years.

Gary Kirsten scored a magnificent 153 to help South Africa amass 452 in their second innings and avoid an innings defeat but it was not enough to prevent Australia from completing another massive win.

Set 53 to win, Australia coasted to victory 23 minutes before the scheduled end of play, reaching their target off just 10.1 overs with Justin Langer making 30 and Matthew Hayden 21 to follow up their centuries from the first innings.

They were named as joint winners of the man of the match award while Hayden also received the player of the series award after scoring centuries in all three Tests.

Australia received a cheque for A$51,000 (US$26,000) for winning the series but captain Steve Waugh announced the team had decided to donate their winnings to the bushfire appeal to help familes affected by the blazes that have devastated parts of New South Wales state.

Australia’s win, which followed their 246 run triumph in Adelaide and their nine wicket success in Melbourne, gave them their first series cleansweep over South Africa since Bill Woodfull’s side thumped the Proteas 5-0 in 1931-32.

It also cemented their place as the world’s official Test champions although they did have to work a little harder than expected after the South Africans prodced their finest batting performance of the series to stall Australia’s march to victory.

“It’s been a great couple of weeks for the Australian team,” Waugh said.

South Africa started the day at 209 for two, needing another 191 to make Australia bat again after their first innings total of 154, and added another 243 runs before they were finally dismissed after tea.

Kirsten’s superb contribution saw him join Darryl Cullinan as South Africa’s most prolific century maker in tests as well as breaking Jim Zulch’s record for the highest score by a South African in Sydney.

The 34-year-old resumed on 82 and took less than an hour to get the required 18 runs to equal Cullinan’s South African record of 14 Test hundreds, reaching the mark with a boundary off Australian leg spinner Stuart MacGill.

The left handed opener had received a let-off on 12 the previous day when he was dropped by Mark Waugh at second slip but hardly played another false shot as he went on to register his second hundred against Australia off 246 balls in five hours.

He went on to pass Zulch’s previous record of 150 for the highest score by a South African in Sydney set in 1910-11, before dragging a wide delivery from MacGill back on to his stumps, ending an innings that spanned 359 balls over seven and a quarter hours and featured 19 fours.

Jacques Kallis (34), Neil McKenzie (38) and Test debutant Justin Ontong (32) all shared half-century partnerships with Kirsten before Shaun Pollock hit an adventurous unbeaten 61 not out to steer the visitors past Australia’s total.

“They are definitely deserved winners, they played the best cricket during the series and deserved to win but we’ll be back,” Pollock said.

MacGill was the best of the Australian bowlers, taking four second innings wickets to finish with seven for the match while Shane Warne added three more to his first innings haul.

Australia, South Africa and New Zealand will play a month-long triangular one-day series starting next before the Australians travel to South Africa next month for a return three-match Test series.

Waugh believed his side proved beyond any doubt they are the best Test team in world cricket.

“Coming into this series, we had a few things to prove. We believed we were still the best side and had played some pretty good cricket over the past couple of years and we wanted to continue that,” Waugh told reporters.

“It’s hard to imagine us playing much better.”

“Beating South Africa 3-0 is a very good performance and probably on a par, if not better, than beating Pakistan 3-0 here a few years ago,” Waugh said.

Under the ICC’s complicated rankings system, the South Africans can still replace Australia as the number one side if they draw their upcoming three-match series at home.

But Waugh said his team’s performances had proved his side was the best, no matter what the computer rankings said.