Cricket: Aussies wrap up series against West Indies

AUSTRALIA'S cricketers clinched victory in their five-match one-day series against the West Indies with a convincing 50-run win at the Gabba ground in Brisbane.

Set an imposing target of 325 after Ricky Ponting's sparkling century in the fourth match in the series, the tourists never looked like passing the ground-record score. To their credit, they did manage to bat through the whole 50 overs, reaching 274 for eight, but Australia now lead the series 3-0. Twenty20 specialist Kieron Pollard top-scored for the West Indies with 62 off 55 balls and shared a 102 partnership with Dwayne Smith (58 not out).

Doug Bollinger and Ryan Harris both took two wickets for Australia, with Bollinger dismissing West Indies skipper Chris Gayle for 34. Top-scoring with 106 from 112 balls, Ponting's 29th one-day century was his first in Brisbane and helped Australia to reach the highest one-day international score ever seen at the ground. Ponting said: "Pretty much when we got Gayle I thought we were home. Twenty five overs in the game was over."