WORLD champions Australia needed just 31 overs (186 balls) to blow away the visiting West Indies in their third and final One-day international (ODI) at the Manuka Oval in Canberra on Tuesday as they stormed to an emphatic eight-wicket win to seal a 3-0 series victory.
Captain Shai Hope and the West Indies team were hoping to get a consolation win before heading into the three-match Twenty/20 international (T20I) series which starts on Friday.
However, after being sent into bat by Australia captain Steve Smith, West Indies had a torrid time in the middle as they were bundled over for just 86 inside 25 overs. The hosts then steamrolled to victory in 6.5 overs (41 balls).
It was a defeat of historic significance for the West Indies, as it was the shortest men's ODI in Australia and the sixth-shortest all time. The 86-run total was also the Windies' fifth-lowest score in ODI matches and their second-lowest against Australia.
Hope cut a disappointed figure at the post-match conference.
"I am not sure if I can make sense of (what just happened), to be fair," Hope said. "Like I said previously, our batting let us down. We can see that for the entire series."
Rested for the second ODI which the Aussies won by 83 runs, seamer Xavier Bartlett again proved to be a difficult customer for West Indies as he returned figures of four for 21 in 7.1 overs to help dismantle the Caribbean outfit. Bartlett, who claimed figures of four for 17 in the first ODI, walked away with both the Man-of-the-Match and Player-of-the-Series awards after his performance in the final ODI.
The visitors were cautious in the first power play after the dismissal of Kjorn Ottley (eight), and they progressed to 36 for one by the end of the tenth over. Thereafter, the woeful batting from West Indies in the series continued as they fell to 73 for five by the end of the 20th over as Keacy Carty (ten), Hope (four), debutant Teddy Bishop (duck) and top-scorer Alick Athanaze (32) were all sent back to the pavilion in quick succession.
Athanaze aside, no Windies batsman scored more than 12 runs, and the visitors lost their last five wickets for just 13 runs. After having Ottley trapped lbw in the third over, Bartlett returned to help clean up the West Indies tail as he dismissed Romario Shepherd (one), Roston Chase (12) and Alzarri Joseph (six) to put the visitors out of their misery after just 24.1 overs.
Lance Morris (two for 13) and Adam Zampa (two for 14) chipped in nicely with the ball for the Aussies.
"We need to do some real soul-searching to understand what is needed in certain conditions," Hope said.
"We did not bat as well as we could have in the series and it showed."
After a sorry batting display, the Windies bowlers were knocked to all parts of the Canberra venue by Jake Fraser-McGurk (41 off 18 balls) and Josh Inglis (35 not out off 16 balls) in a rapid 67-run stand for the first wicket.
Fraser-McGurk, 21, is touted as one of the next rising stars in Australian cricket, and he treated the crowd to an onslaught with five fo
