Summary Herath and Dilshan made Australia work hard to reach the small victory target.
SYDNEY: Mike Hussey capped his final test before retirement by steering Australia to 141-5 and a five-wicket win over Sri Lanka on Sunday, completing a 3-0 series sweep.
Sri Lanka spinners Rangana Herath and Tillakaratne Dilshan made Australia work hard to reach the small victory target, taking regular wickets, but the outcome was never in doubt.
Hussey reached 27 not out and the Sydney Cricket Ground crowd was baying for the 37-year-old batsman to hit the winning runs but Mr Cricket , as Hussey is nicknamed for his dedication, was typically undistracted.
With two runs needed, Hussey ran a single and the crowd cheered every block and dot ball from Mitchell Johnson until the paceman could no longer resist temptation and knocked off the winning single, finishing unbeaten on 1.
"What a place to finish," Hussey said. "I couldn t be happier. I didn t want to bat at all. I was hoping we would get the runs with none down."
Sri Lanka still has not won a test in Australia in 14 attempts and was left to rue its lack of runs in both innings. Only three batsmen scored more than 25 in the first innings and the loss of four middle-order wickets for just 24 runs stunted the second innings.
The Australian summer now switches to limited-overs games, with the West Indies joining Sri Lanka on the tour.
Having been competitive but ultimately unsuccessful against No.1-ranked South Africa, and now whitewashing Sri Lanka, Australia is already eyeing off the upcoming challenges of a tour of India before the Ashes series in England.
"I couldn t be happier," captain Michael Clarke said. "We won the series 3-0 and that was our goal against Sri Lanka.
"What you ve seen of the Australian cricket team this summer probably sums up where we re at. We re fighting to get better every day, that s the positive. We are improving slowly as a group but we know the next 12 months is huge for us."
Dinesh Chandimal s intelligent half-century helped Sri Lanka move from an overnight 225-7 to 278 all out in Sunday s morning session and things looked a little tricky for Australia when opener David Warner edged Suranga Lakmal to second slip for a golden duck, contrasting with his first-innings 85.
But the other top-order batsman made handy contributions. Ed Cowan added a composed 88-ball 36, Phil Hughes was trapped lbw by Herath for 34 and Clarke, who survived an lbw review on 13, was caught by Lahiru Thirimanne off Dilshan for 29.
Herath, who finished with 3-47 and 12 wickets for the series, dismissed Cowan to bring Hussey to the crease. Run out by his captain in the first innings and dropped from the one-day squad announced Sunday morning, Hussey grasped the opportunity to go out on a high.
A smart reverse sweep to the boundary elicited huge cheers from the modest 10,505 crowd on hand to watch Sunday s coup de grace, and, after going into tea just five runs short of victory, Australia needed just 11 balls of the final session to reach its target.
