SYDNEY, Jan 5: Australia hammered England by 10 wickets in the final Test to complete a 5-0 Ashes series clean sweep for the first time in 86 years here at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Friday.

The Australians were left with the comfortable task of scoring just 46 runs to wrap up victory after they dismissed the beleaguered tourists for just 147 little more than an hour into the fourth day.

Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden, playing in their last Test together as Australia's most prolific-scoring opening pair, reached the target just before lunch to wrap up a conclusive victory in a one-sided series.

Langer, playing in his 105th and final Test, was not out 20, with Hayden on 23.

It was the perfect send-off for Australia's three retiring cricket greats, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Langer.

McGrath claimed three fourth-day wickets to finish with 3-38 and took a wicket off his last ball in Test cricket, while Warne left with the distinction of topscoring in Australia's first innings with 71, to go with his two wickets in the match.

All three, who played a combined 374 Tests, received rapturous applause from the capacity SCG crowd to signal the end of a golden era for Australian cricket.

Warne finished his incomparable 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 clocked up 1,001 wickets between them in the 104 Tests they played together.

Any remote hopes England had of setting Australia a teasing target in the final Test fell away after a cataclysmic start to the fourth day.

The team's remaining batting hope, Kevin Pietersen, was out to the third ball of the day when he was caught behind off McGrath on his overnight score of 29.

And nightwatchman Monty Panesar was run out four overs later after attempting England's first run of the day. It was all downhill from there.

It was Australia’s 12th consecutive Test win and their 16th from the last 17 Test matches.

Meanwhile, Ricky Ponting admitted on Friday that he shed a tear as the realisation dawned that three of his long-term team-mates — Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer — had played their last Test match for Australia.

The Australian captain said his abiding emotion was satisfaction rather than revenge, as his crack side demolished the tourists by 10 wickets before lunch on the fourth day of the final Ashes Test.

“It's not so much the end result of the 5-0 series, but probably just the occasion with the three guys finishing up,” said Ponting, who was named player of the series. “I admit I shed a tear out on the ground, and even when we took the last wicket, to think that this would be the last time that we would be walking off the ground with Glenn and Shane.

“I was hoping to get a chance to bat with Langer, I was a bit dirty on Matty Hayden not getting out,” he said with a smile. “To realise that was the last opportunity that I was going to have was a pretty emotional time.”

Ponting was decried as the Australian captain who lost the Ashes after England's 2005 triumph, and he has been driving the Australian team throughout this series. He scored 576 runs in the series at 82.29 with centuries in the opening two Tests.

“I'm very satisfied. Revenge has never come into it. I've never mentioned it once. I couldn't be any more satisfied than I am at the moment,” he said. “For us to play as well as we have in the last two games for the guys who are retiring is something they can be proud of.

“I addressed the team before the Test and said all I wanted was when all of us walked off at the end that we could look the retiring players in the eye and knew we'd done our absolute best for them.

“The 5-0 result is pretty fitting that this group of players achieved that,” he added.

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