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 India rounded off their tour of West Indies on a satisfying note, registering a comfortable 56-run victory in the fifth and final one-day international here yesterday to clinch the five-match series. Displaying a fine all-round performance, India scored a competitive 260 after electing to bat first with skipper Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar coming up with solid half- century knocks.
They then bundled out West Indies for 191 in 36.2 overs after the home team had been set a revised target of 248 in 44 overs under the Duckworth-Lewis system following a brief rain interruption. The win gave India a 2-1 win in the rain-truncated series that saw the first two matches in Jamaica being washed out. India won the third one-dayer at Bridgetown by a seven-wicket margin and West Indies replied with a seven-wicket win in the rain-shortened fourth one-dayer here on Saturday.
India had lost the five-match Test series 1-2. It was India’s first one-day series triumph abroad after their 2-1 victory against West Indies in the DCM Cup in Toronto in 1999. In a remarkably mature performance by the Indians, useful contributions came from all the top-order batsmen. But while others threw it away when well set, Ganguly and Tendulkar laboured hard and consolidated the Indian innings.
 Tendulkar top-scored with a 70-ball 65 while Ganguly made 56 off 80 balls. The West Indian cause seemed all but lost when their first five wickets fell for just 88 runs. But Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who had had a dream run in the Test series, played another magnificent knock of 51 off just 40 balls to keep the West Indian innings afloat.
Chanderpaul and Ridley Jacobs added 71 runs in only 55 balls but could not stay long enough to carry their team through. With the asking rate climbing steadily, the pressure mounted on the batsmen and Chanderpaul, who hit Harbhajan Singh for an amazing six over long-on, scooped a high catch to Ganguly while attempting another big hit.
 Chanderpaul’s dismissal sounded the death knell of the West Indian innings even though the rest of the batsmen tried their best to put up a fight. The most noticeable aspect of the Indian batting yesterday was the willingness of the players to graft and work hard for their runs. Leaving aside their penchant for scoring mainly through boundaries, the Indians did a lot of running and only 19 fours were hit in the entire innings, apart from two sixes.
Tendulkar’s knock contained just three fours and a six while Ganguly hit five fours. Only Virender Sehwag retained his usual flamboyance hitting six fours in his 32-run knock. Consequently, the running between the wickets was vastly improved and runs came at a steady rate without the batsmen trying anything flashy.
But the flip side was that all the top-order batsmen threw it away when well settled. They were all out to casual-looking shots and gave tame catches. Sehwag, Dinesh Mongia, Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were all guilty of throwing their wickets away. India stuck to their new opening pair of Ganguly and Sehwag even after opting to bat first. The duo gave the team a sound start with Sehwag doing the bulk of the scoring in the opening overs before becoming the first victim of Mervyn Dillon, who claimed the second five-wicket haul of his career. India lost their first wicket at 43 in the ninth over.
Ganguly and Mongia (28) added 62 for the second wicket. Mongia brought up the 100 of the Indian innings with a six over long-on off Corey Collymore but was out the very next ball giving a simple catch to Chris Gayle. Ganguly, who played a largely restrained knock, could not resist the temptation of dancing down the track on a few occasions to hit fours. He reached his 50 with his fifth boundary, a late cut to third man fence off Dillon and was out soon thereafter, offering a sitter to Ramnaresh Sarwan at mid-on.
Tendulkar shared small but vital partnerships with Dravid (20), Yuvraj Singh (10) and Mohd Kaif (17) to carry the innings forward. He too was very restrained in his approach and began to hit out only after the 45th over. But he couldn't stay long after that and dragged a Dillon delivery on to his stumps.
India were well placed at 201 for four after the 40th over but the regular fall of wickets meant they were unable to accelerate in the slog overs. When Ashish Nehra was clean bowled by Gayle off the last ball of the 50th over, the Indians seemed to have settled for a total 20-25 runs short of what they should have achieved.
But their total proved to be more than enough once West Indies lost their key batsmen. Openers Gayle and Wavell Hinds were back in pavilion by the fourth over with only 12 runs on the board. Star batsman Brian Lara and Sarwan tried to rescue the innings in a 60-run stand for the third wicket. But both these batsmen and skipper Carl Hooper were dismissed within 16 runs to leave their innings in complete disarray.
Sarwan was clean bowled by Harbhajan Singh while attempting a cut shot after making 32 runs. In the next over, Hooper (1) pulled Ajit Agarkar straight into the hands of Sehwag and two overs later Lara was claimed by Tendulkar, caught by Mongia for a 69-ball 36. As the Indians went into celebration and the crowd into a stunned silence, Chanderpaul and Jacobs tried to do the improbable. In an attacking batting display, both the batsmen hit the bowlers to all areas of the ground.
Fortunately for the Indians, they were able to break through before it was too late. Once Chanderpaul was dismissed followed by Jacobs (36) a few overs later, West Indies ran out of steam and India were left only to complete the formalities.
Score Card
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