Aussies wrap up series, WI go down fighting

Bridgetown (Barbados): Australia were made to fight all the way to the end, but they completed an 87-run victory in the third and final Test against West Indies on Monday.

West Indies, chasing 475 for victory, were dismissed for 387 in their second innings about 25 minutes before the tea break on the fifth and final day of the Test at Kensington Oval.

Brett Lee formalised the result, when he had Daren Powell touch a short, rising ball to wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.

Australia win the three-Test series 2-0, after they also won the opening Test at Sabina Park in the Jamaica capital of Kingston by 95 runs. The second Test at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground in the Antigua village of North Sound was drawn. The Aussies have already retained the Frank Worrell Trophy - symbol of Test supremacy between the two sides.

The match was over as a genuine contest once Beau Casson and Stuart Clark swung the match Australia's way with two vital wickets before lunch. Casson removed Dwayne Bravo for 69, and Clark got Shivnarine Chanderpaul for 50, as West Indies reached 316 for five in their second innings at the interval.

For just over 90 minutes, Australia had been kept at bay by Chanderpaul and Bravo, after West Indies continued from their bedtime total of 235 for three.

The day started shakily for the Aussies, when Chanderpaul edged the first delivery from Clark through the slip cordon for a boundary. Unfortunately for the Aussies, Chanderpaul and Bravo took this as a sign, and knuckled down to play circumspectly, and a few milestones fell by the way during this period.

First, Bravo stabbed a delivery from Casson into the square cover region for a single to reach his 50. Then Chanderpaul reached 8,000 Test runs, when he glanced a delivery from Brett Lee to deep fine leg for a single.