India offer scant resistance as West Indies secure series win

West Indies 422 & 197 India 212 & 252 West Indies win by 155 runs

The West Indies beat the rain and India to win the fifth and final Test by 155 runs an hour and 10 minutes before lunch yesterday, clinching the series 2-1 and ending their opponents' hopes of ending eight years without a series triumph overseas.

Only three tail-end wickets stood between the West Indies and their victory, but heavy overnight rain and damp, leaden skies threatened to thwart them. A light shower delayed the start by half-hour, but it took them only eight and a half overs with the second new ball to complete the job.

Set an unlikely target of 408, a total never previously achieved to win a Test, India began at 237 for 7 and managed only 15 more runs. Less than an hour after their last wicket fell, to a wild shot by Zaheer Khan that skied a catch to extra cover, the rain swept in from the east and seemed set in for the day.

With a little more application by the Indians, the change in the weather might well have saved the match. But they seemed resigned to their fate.

Cameron Cuffy dismissed the wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra, to umpire Russell Tiffin's third lbw decision of the innings, in the fourth over of the day, and uprooted Javagal Srinath's middle stump 10 runs later.

Even with the clouds banked up again, the Indian last pair, Khan and Asish Nehra, showed no inclination to hang around. Nehra missed one typical tail-ender's swipe at Cuffy but when Zaheer made contact with his off Merv Dillon, it landed in the safe hands of Pedro Collins at extra cover.

As Collins, the hero of the previous day with 24 useful runs at No 9 and Sachin Tendulkar for 86 among his three wickets, held the catch, the West Indies players snatched souvenir stumps and the few hundred spectators swarmed across the ground as the players set out on an aborted lap of honour.

The captain, Carl Hooper, called the outcome "a timely boost for West Indies cricket" and praised the spirit of his team who came back from a 1-0 deficit after defeat in the second Test to win the third in Barbados and secured the series here.

Final day, India won toss

WEST INDIES – First Innings 422 (W W Hinds 113, C H Gayle 68, R R Sarwan 65, R D Jacobs 59, S Chanderpaul 58; Harbhajan Singh 5-138).

INDIA – First Innings 212 (V V S Laxman 65no; M Dillon 5-71).

WEST INDIES – Second Innings 197 (S Chanderpaul 59; Z Khan 4-79).

INDIA – Second Innings (Overnight: 237 for 7)
A Ratra lbw b Cuffy 19
Z Khan c Collins b Dillon 12
J Srinath b Cuffy 4
A Nehra not out 0
Extras (b5 lb1 w1 nb9) 16
Total (88.3 overs) 252

Fall (cont): 8-242 9-252.

Bowling: Dillon 22.3-6-77-; Cuffy 18-6-34-2; Collins 17-4-60-3 (nb7, w1); Sanford 19-8-48-3 (nb2); Hooper 5-1-15-0; Gayle 4-2-7-1; Sarwan 3-0-5-0.

Umpires: D R Shepherd (Eng) and R B Tiffin (Zim).

Man of the Match: W W Hinds.

Man of the Series: S Chanderpaul.

WEST INDIES WIN SERIES 2-1.