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This One-day series has fast become as one-sided and predictable as the Tests.

The West Indies's victory in the second match ensured there won't be another ``whitewash'' but, after South Africa's latest resounding triumph by 99 runs in the sunshine of a noisy and jubilant St George's Park yesterday, it is not undue pessimism to fear a 6-1 outcome by the time the tour ends with the final match today week.

In horse racing terms, South Africa won by nine lengths on a tight rein without the need to use the whip. In fact, they seldom had to break out of a canter.

They were slow out of the gates, losing two wickets within the first 10 overs for 21, but once they got into stride, they made swift progress to 278 for six from their 50 overs.

Carl Hooper, West Indies captain for the day in the absence of the injured Brian Lara, said afterwards he thought the target was ``gettable'' on a small ground and a ``decent'' wicket. It was an ambitious assessment of a team without one of its three principal batsmen and against one of the finest fielding teams the game has known.

Like South Africa, the West Indies were also stuck in the stalls at the start of their chase for the winning pole, losing Junior Murray and the hapless Philo Wallace for 13 within the first six overs.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Keith Arthurton and Hooper himself managed to keep up a steady gallop but South African captain Hansie Cronje had the imagination, the bowlers and the phenomenal fielders to always pressure them into crucial tactical errors.

They never looked like getting on terms and the frailty of their batting was yet again exposed as their last six wickets tumbled for 27 from 10.2 overs once Hooper had been dismissed by Cronje for an explosive 57 off 40 balls, with three massive sixes and five fours.

Sent in by Hooper, South Africa based their total on a third-wicket partnership of 162 off 24.2 overs between the richly talented opener Herschelle Gibbs, whose 125 from 146 balls was his first hundred for South Africa, and the hyperpotent Cronje with a run-a-ball 74.

They were allowed to proceed at their own pace, comfortably exploiting both the spaces in a field widely spread to protect the boundaries and the deficiencies of their slow-moving opponents who, with a couple of exceptions, were like tortoises compared to their own speeding hares.

Even when Gibbs neared his maiden hundred, Hooper declined to close in the field and challenge him to take the risk of reaching it with a boundary, not singles.

Recognising the character of an easy-paced pitch that rendered timing difficult, Gibbs stroked only nine fours, and not a six, through his impressive innings. He was eventually out in the 46th over, caught at long-leg sweeping Keith Arthurton, the most effective bowler with his controlled left-arm stuff and the most combative West Indian on the field.

The deliberately more assertive Cronje arrived after Nixon McLean and Reon King had put a tight rein on the scoring. Given the new ball for the first time in stead of Curtly Ambrose, McLean had Daryl Cullinan scooping a catch to mid-on and removed Jacques Kallis's off-stump while King kept a probing length and line around off-stump.

As he has repeatedly done as captain and batsman, Cronje immediately counter-attacked, challenging Ambrose when he was introduced. He was favoured by luck with a couple of edges that found the boundary instead of the stumps or the fielders' clutches and, by the time he became the first of Arthurton's four victims, skying the sweep/pull that brought him two sixes, to short extra-cover, he had scored

Jonty Rhodes contributed 27 off 30 balls and Dale Benkenstein an unbeaten 18 off 20 at the end. But the damage had long since been done by Gibbs and Cronje.

Ambrose's 10 overs were unusually expensive, costing 58, but the real mid-innings acceleration came off Neil McGarrell's left-arm spin, 31 off four.

There was an immediate stumble for the West Indies as they set off on their chase. Murray nibbled at Elsworthy and edged a catch to the keeper in the second over and Wallace, with the first clean shot he has managed for weeks, picked out deep backward square-leg, both off Steve Elworthy.

After that, the assignment was virtually impossible unless Chanderpaul or Hooper batted as they had done in the second match in East London. Neither did.

Chanderpaul needed 49 balls over 21 and then pushed a return catch to Kallis and Hooper only got slightly more than half his 108 in East London.

The South Africans were always in control of the situation, exerting the pressure that would inevitably lead to a critical misjudgment.

Arthurton had gathered a measured 48 off 76 balls and he and Hooper were moving smoothly in a stand of 56 from eight overs when he drove Kallis directly to Cronje at mid-on and attempted to steal a single. All season, it has proven an unwise option to this South African team and Cronje uprooted the stumps at the bowler's end with Arthurton two feet short of his crease.

Another brief spurt followed as Hooper casually flicked Cronje under the roof of the stand at square-leg, Ridley Jacobs drove him straight for another six in the same over and Hooper hoisted the left-arm spinner Nicky Boje over the second-story press box for a third six in the space of six balls.

That raised the total to 151 for four after 31 overs, only three less than South Africa had at the same stage of their innings but for two wickets more. It was the last flicker of hope for the West Indies.

Once Hooper had hoisted Cronje into the lap of the fielder at deep backward square-leg, placed there with meticulous care the ball before by the captain, the resistance was broken.

The last six wickets tumbled for 27 off 10.2 overs in another calamitous collapse, three in three balls.

McLean and McGarrell attempted indescribable strokes and were bowled by the last two balls of Boje's sixth over, Jacobs pushed a return catch to Cronje off the first ball of the next and it was all over with 8.3 overs still available as Ambrose holed out to mid-off.

The fifth match, day/night, is in Cape Town on Tuesday.