SYD­NEY–Kieron Pol­lard's third one-day in­ter­na­tion­al cen­tu­ry could not pre­vent an­oth­er West In­dies de­feat, as their five-match se­ries against Aus­tralia quick­ly turned to dis­as­ter in Aus­tralia yes­ter­day.

The big-hit­ting right-han­der stroked a ma­ture, un­beat­en 109 to haul West In­dies around from the tur­moil of 55 for six in the 20th over and steer them to a re­spectable 220 all out off 49.4 overs.

All-rounder Shane Wat­son then ham­mered 76, his sec­ond half-cen­tu­ry in as many games as Aus­tralia can­tered to a com­fort­able five-wick­et win with five overs left at the Syd­ney Crick­et Ground.

The de­feat was the fourth straight for West In­dies, leav­ing them on the brink of a dread­ed white­wash, with the fi­nal ODI sched­uled for Mel­bourne on Sun­day.

Not for the first time in the se­ries, West In­dies bat­ting col­lapsed un­der dis­ci­plined bowl­ing and smart catch­ing from the Aussies, af­ter they won the toss and opt­ed to take first knock.

Left-arm seam­er Mitchell John­son starred with three for 36 while fast bowler Ben Cut­ting, in his first game of the se­ries, picked up three for 45.

John­son Charles, in for the in­jured Chris Gayle, last­ed all of three balls with­out scor­ing be­fore miss­ing a prod at John­son and los­ing his off-stump at five for one in the fourth over.

His in-form open­ing part­ner Kier­an Pow­ell got a lead­ing edge to cov­er off John­son to de­part for nine in the eighth over and three balls lat­er fel­low left-han­der Dar­ren Bra­vo (4) failed to safe­ly ne­go­ti­ate a lift­ing de­liv­ery, and fend­ed an easy catch to Aaron Finch at sec­ond slip to leave West In­dies 17 for three.

With five runs added, Dwayne Bra­vo (3) missed a for­ward de­fen­sive stroke and was lbw to off-spin­ner Glenn Maxwell on re­view and Nars­ingh De­onar­ine sug­gest­ed per­ma­nence be­fore nick­ing Cut­ting to Finch at sec­ond slip.

De­von Thomas (7) was on the end of a harsh de­ci­sion by the third um­pire, ad­judged caught by Finch div­ing for­ward at sec­ond slip in Cut­ting's next over, when sev­er­al re­plays proved in­con­clu­sive.

West In­dies seemed set to col­lapse in a heap when Pol­lard an­chored a se­ries of part­ner­ships to see the Windies out of trou­ble. The res­cue mis­sion be­gan with a steady 43-run, sev­enth-wick­et stand with cap­tain Dar­ren Sam­my, whose 25 came from 42 balls and in­clud­ed three fours.

The right-hand­ed Pol­lard put on an­oth­er 35 for the eighth wick­et with An­dre Rus­sell (18) but it was his 64-run, ninth-wick­et stand off 46 balls with Sunil Nar­ine (23) which gave West In­dies pre­cious runs at the end.

Pol­lard abort­ed his usu­al dash­ing ap­proach for pru­dence, fac­ing 136 balls and count­ing 11 fours and two six­es, to see the in­nings through.

He raised his half-cen­tu­ry off 95 de­liv­er­ies be­fore reach­ing triple fig­ures off 132 balls in the penul­ti­mate over of the in­nings.

He moved to 99 with his sec­ond six that sailed over long on off seam­er Clint McK­ay, be­fore tak­ing a sin­gle down the ground.

Wat­son, who hit a hun­dred in the third ODI in Can­ber­ra, once again put the Windies bowlers to the sword as he set the Aussies on their way in an in­nings that con­sumed 84 balls and con­tained nine fours.

He sur­vived a reg­u­la­tion chance to wick­et­keep­er De­von Thomas on 32 in the 17th over, to share in two half-cen­tu­ry stands that all but shut the Windies out. He put on 53 for the first wick­et with Finch (25) and a fur­ther 62 for the sec­ond wick­et with Phil Hugh­es (23).

When he gloved a lifter from fast bowler Tino Best (2-38) through to Thomas at 145 for three in the 29th over, cap­tain Michael Clarke (37) and Adam Vo­ges (28) post­ed 53 for the fourth wick­et to seal the deal. (CMC)

SCORE­BOARD

WEST IN­DIES

K Pow­ell c Maxwell b John­son 9

J Charles b John­son 0

DM Bra­vo c Finch b John­son 4

DJ Bra­vo lbw b Maxwell 3

K Pol­lard not out 109

N De­onar­ine c Finch b Cut­ting 10

+D Thomas c Finch b Cut­ting 7

�2D Sam­my c Clarke b Cut­ting 25

A Rus­sell c Maxwell b Faulkn­er 18

S Nar­ine c wkp Wade b McK­ay 23

T Best run out 1

Ex­tras (b1, lb1, w9) 11

TO­TAL (all out, 49.4 overs) 220

FOW: 1-5, 2-17, 3-17, 4-22, 5-45, 6-55, 7-98, 8-133, 9-197, 10-220

Bowl­ing: McK­ay 10-2-41-1, John­son 10-1-36-3 (w4), Maxwell 10-0-34-1 (w1), Cut­ting 10-1-45-3 (w1), Faulkn­er 9.4-1-62-1(w3)

AUS­TRALIA

S Wat­son c wkp Thomas b Best 76

A Finch lbw b Nar­ine 25

P Hugh­es c DJ Bra­vo b Nar­ine 23

�2M Clarke c wkp Thomas b Best 37

A Vo­ges c Sam­my b Rus­sell 28

+M Wade not out 13

G Maxwell not out 1

Ex­tras (lb8, w8, nb2) 18

TO­TAL (5 wk­ts, 44.5 overs) 221

Did not bat: J Faulkn­er, M John­son, B Cut­ting, C McK­ay.

FOW: 1-53, 2-115, 3-145, 4-198, 5-220

Bowl­ing: Best 9.5-0-38-2 (w3), Rus­sell 6-0-40-1 (w1, nb2), Sam­my 2-0-16-0 (w1), Nar­ine 10-1-34-2, DJ Bra­vo 4-0-25-0 (w1), De­onar­ine 8-0-38-0, Pol­lard 5-0-22-0 (w2).

Re­sult: Aus­tralia won by five wick­ets.

Se­ries: Aus­tralia lead five-match se­ries 4-0.

Man-of-the-Match: Kieron Pol­lard. Toss: West In­dies. Um­pires: S Fry, N Llong; TV � Asad Rauf.