Big-hitting Kieron Pollard blasted a typically muscular 47 as West Indies clinched its first win in almost six years over Australia when it took the second one-dayer by five wickets on Sunday.
In a match reduced to 40 overs a side because of rain, Australia struggled to 154 for nine under cloudy conditions with West Indies reaching the Duckworth-Lewis target of 158 with 10 balls remaining.
Pollard top-scored with 47, an innings which featured four huge sixes, one of which, off spinner Xavier Doherty, cleared the Arnos Vale stands and ended on the runway of the neighbouring St. Vincent airport.
Carlton Baugh had the honour of hitting the winning runs, another six off the hapless Doherty which flew over midwicket as the home side finished on 163 for five.
Dwayne Bravo also played a crucial role, making 30 in a fifth-wicket partnership of 64 with Pollard which swung the game the West Indies' way after it had lost opener Kieran Powell to a first ball lbw off Brett Lee. “It's a good feeling, the team played much better, the bowlers did well again and there was much more responsibility when chasing the runs,” said West Indies captain Darren Sammy. “It was a total team effort. All in all we were searching for a win and we are glad we got over the line. ”
Australian captain Shane Watson admitted that his batsmen had come up short.
“In the end we were 20-30 runs short. Unfortunately we weren't able to get big enough partnerships through the start or middle,” said Watson.
Australia won the first game at the same venue on Friday by 64 runs, its 15th win in the last 16 one-dayers against West Indies, a run stretching back to the 2006 Champions Trophy in India.
West Indies, which suffered an embarrassing middle order collapse on Friday when it lost six wickets for just seven runs, won the toss on Sunday and put Australia into bat.
David Hussey top-scored for the tourist with 37 off 62 balls, an innings which featured four boundaries before he fell to off-spinner Sunil Narine, who finished with figures of four for 27 off eight overs. Narine was named man-of-the-match.
The start of play was delayed by rain before more showers forced the players off for 90 minutes when Australia was 16 for no loss after five overs.
Australia then slipped to 46 for three in the 14th over with David Warner (13) and Peter Forrest (0) both dismissed by seamer Kemar Roach in the sixth over of the day. Roach, desperate for a Test match call-up, finished with two for 23 off eight overs.
