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The irresponsible, carefree and mind-boggling approach the West Indies had seemingly left behind in South Africa journeyed across the Atlantic and emphatically made its presence felt for three unbelievable hours here yesterday.

In their quest for a hardly daunting target of 189 to take a 3-1 advantage in the Cable & Wireless limited-overs series against Australia, West Indies players made fools of themselves with atrocious running between the wickets and two ill-advised cross-batted shots against the world's most successful spinner.

To the utter dismay of another capacity crowd at the Queen's Park Oval, Ridley Jacobs, Jimmy Adams and Carl Hooper, well set and in little bother, attempted suicidal singles and predictably paid the price.

While they were prised out by the fleet-footedness and accuracy of Ricky Ponting and Shane Lee, captain Brian Lara and Stuart Williams chose to sweep Shane Warne's leg-breaks on a pitch that had deteriorated significantly.

Neither was successful, the former having his off-stump struck and the latter his leg-stump.

It meant that the hosts' encouraging start of 90 for two was transformed into the type of collapse we often watched on our television screens a few months ago as they fell for 166.

The defeat, by 20 runs with 22 balls still available, left the series tied 2-2 ahead of Wednesday's fifth match in Georgetown.

Jacobs, opening the batting for probably the first time in his life, executed some meaty drives down the ground.

He reached 29 and then tried to scamper through for a desperate single. Correctly sent back by Adams as Lee pounced on the ball from backward point, Jacobs was well short of his ground when Mark Waugh broke the stumps at the bowler's end.

That dismissal brought the scoring rate down to almost a crawl, even against the uncomplicated stuff of the Waughs. Only 35 runs were eeked out in the first 15 overs after the field restrictions were eased up.

Most of the pressure, however, came from Warne, who always posed a threat in his ten overs in which he took three for 35.

The haul added to his valuable 29 in a face-saving record partnership with Michael Bevan, made Warne the obvious chance for the Man-Of-The-Match award.

Adams, trying to rotate the strike, was the victim of an accurate under-arm throw from Ponting, who also fired out Hooper from the identical backward point position.

Adams was so short of his ground that he headed for the pavilion without waiting for a decision, while Hooper was only marginally further ahead, although Steve Bucknor needed confirmation from the third umpire.

By the time Hooper was out for 23 after 57 balls, Lara and Williams were also back inside and the West Indies, 116 for six, were virtually out of it.

Phil Simmons, on his 36th birthday, kept hope alive with typically cracking off-side shots.

Curtly Ambrose and Mervyn Dillon did not stay with him for any lengthy period and when Simmons was plucked out by a tumbling one-handed catch by wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist, the match was as good as over.

After he was dismissed for 42 off 57 balls, the tall Trinidadian walked off the ground raising his bat in all directions to signal his last international appearance on home soil.

It was left to Nehemiah Perry, the nail on his first finger damaged, and Courtney Walsh to get another 23 runs. They got three before Walsh launched into a massive drive and was bowled.

Australia's innings had three distinct phases after Steve Waugh won the toss for the eighth successive time in international matches on this tour.

The first phase was another encouraging opening stand, the second was a dramatic decline against high-class fast bowling and the third was a spirited revival that prevented a total collapse.

When Gilchrist and Mark Waugh were moving along at a decent rate of five runs an over during the first ten overs, hardly anyone would have predicted the mayhem that was to follow. Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose, the two great fast bowlers who were in tandem for the first time in the One-Day series, might have been categorised as a storm. The pair wiped out the first four wickets inside the first 20 overs.

Mervyn Dillon, though, was a hurricane, knocking over four wickets in his first five overs in which he hardly delivered a loose ball. He removed Steve Waugh, Shane Lee, Tom Moody and Brendon Julian in five memorable overs in which he conceded just a single run off the bat. When Julian was out to a contentious decision for an edged catch to the 'keeper, the noise that erupted around the ground was the loudest of the day and Australia were in tatters at 104 for eight.

The clock on the Queen's Park Oval pavilion had not yet moved on to noon and Australia seemed likely to succumb for fewer than the 139 runs they managed four years ago. It required another late-innings effort from Bevan and essential support from Warne, the pair putting on 77, to give Australia a semblance of a chance. The left-handed Bevan, nicknamed ``The Finisher'' by team-mates, compiled his runs with little bother, nudging the singles and putting away the occasional bad balls. When the 50 overs were completed, he was 59 not out, his third successive unbeaten innings in the series and his 36th in 101 One-Day Internationals.

Bevan entered the proceedings in the 19th over when Lara's gamble to use Ambrose for ten successive overs at the start paid dividends. Mark Waugh, unable to find his touch of the previous day, laboured 43 balls over his 18 and could do nothing about a ground-eater that bowled him in Ambrose's penultimate over. With four balls left to complete his work for the morning, Ambrose bowled the consistent Darren Lehmann behind his back to leave Australia 78 for four.

The first two wickets had gone to Walsh, his second ball of his fourth over winning an obvious lbw verdict against Gilchrist, who tried to cut an uncuttable ball, and the last ball of his fifth over inducing Ricky Ponting to edge a catch to Jacobs. Dillon replaced Ambrose and immediately trapped Steve Waugh lbw shuffling across his stumps. When he removed Lee and Julian to 'keeper's catches and bowled Moody with another one that kept low, the result seemed obvious. It was not.