India failed to stop the West Indies' sturdy march as they went down by 19runs in the fifth and final one-dayer at the Queen's Park Oval on Sunday.
After watching Dwayne Bravo's brilliant improvisation in the final overs givethe Caribbeans a series best 255 for six, the Indians were dismissed for 236 in48 overs by some determined bowling and fielding performance by the hosts.
Virender Sehwag's 95 went in vain as the West Indies, who rested their keyplayers for the inconsequential match, wrapped up the series 4-1 - their firstmajor victory after the ICC Champions Trophy triumph in England in 2004.
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Sehwag stood tall among the ruins, smashing 10 fours and a six from 103 ballsand featured three vital partnerships with Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh andMohammad Kaif until he perished to a slower delivery from Jerome Taylor (3-48).
Whereas the rest of the batsmen showed no signs of having learnt from theirprevious failures, the home team's reserve players produced a masterlyperformance to give their captain Brian Lara a rich farewell in his last matchon home turf.
Left arm spinner Dave Mohammed (3-39) bamboozled the visitors with his flightwhile Lara out-thought the Indians with some unconventional moves, as in openingthe bowling with Wavell Hinds (2-28).
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Hinds' military medium stuff beguiled the Indian top order but the key momentof the match might have been the needless run out of skipper Dravid (18).
Bravo's pyrotechnics in the closing stages helped the West Indies finish withthe highest total of the series.
Bravo stroked his second successive half century of the series, an unbeaten62 off only 36 balls, to help the hosts overcome a middle overs slump.
The young all-rounder put on 80 runs for the fifth wicket with Wavell Hinds(32) as the Caribbeans collected 90 runs in the final 10 overs.
Chris Gayle (51 off 61) provided the early fireworks and put on 82 runs forthe second wicket with the consistent Ramnaresh Sarwan (52) before the hostsslumped.
Bravo peppered the off-side with boundaries in the extra cover region and hisrunning between the wickets was breathtaking.
India were again disappointing in the field, dropping at least two catchesand bowling several wides and no-balls, nobody worse than Munaf Patel whoconceded 64 runs for one wicket in his 10 overs.
Lara made a scrappy 36 from 62 balls in his final one-day international onhome turf before he departed run-out, waving his bat at his adoring fans in thestands.
India squeezed the matter after the 20th over when West Indies had advancedto 92 for two on the strength of Gayle's mighty hitting.
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Sehwag did more than was asked of him as the fifth bowler, bowling his 10overs for only 29 runs and claiming Gayle out bowled.
Hinds struck in the very first over, luring Robin Uthappa to an outside edgeoff the third ball of the innings.
The promotion of Mahendra Singh Dhoni (14) failed to click as theswashbuckler played played Hinds on to his stumps.
Sehwag and Dravid added 47 for the third wicket before the latter hesitatedin the middle of the pitch and was beaten by Mohammed's throw off his ownbowling.
Yuvraj (26) displayed his touch in striking two silken boundaries but thenwas beaten by the flight and bowled by Mohammed.
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The left-hander's association with Sehwag fetched India 57 runs.
Sehwag and Kaif (12) kept the Indians afloat, adding 40 runs for the fifthwicket and pushed the score to a healthy 170 for four, but three wickets in thespace of 19 runs effectively killed India's hopes.
Earlier, Gayle took off like a steam train, hitting Sreesanth for two fourseach in his first three overs, to rub the salt further into bowler's woundsafter he was mortified to see Gayle dropped off the second ball he bowled.
Gayle provided a head-high catch to Dhoni and then took his chance with bothhands.
He completed his half century with two successive fours off Sehwag beforelosing his off-stump.
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His partner, young Sewnarine Chattergoon was out first ball bowled when heshouldered arm to Ajit Agarkar and saw to his horror the ball come back to hithis off-stump.
Sarwan, continuing with his outstanding form of the series, hit yet anotherhalf century but was inconvenienced for half of his innings because of a throwfrom the outfield which hit him painfully on the left wrist.
Sarwan made 52 runs from 97 balls with just one four before he dashed downthe track but missed a Sreesanth delivery which hit his off-stump.
Bravo, who provide the acceleration in the final overs, was relieved whenUthappa dropped him at the mid-wicket boundary off an impressive Agarkar.
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Agarkar was again his feisty self bowling his first spell of six overs for 18runs and one wicket and despite the late scramble, finished with 2 for 44.
India made two changes in their line-up with Irfan Pathan and Ramesh Powarmaking way for Uthappa and Patel.
PTI
