ST GEORGE’S (Grenada), June 30: Shane Watson struck his maiden one-day century to power Australia to a seven-wicket victory in the third One-day International against the West Indies at the Queen’s Park Stadium on Sunday.

Watson, playing in his first ODI series since the final of the World Cup last year, hit 126 from 122 balls as Australia, chasing 224 runs from their allocation of 50 overs, hit their target.

The winning runs came when Xavier Marshall delivered a wide delivery to Michael Clarke down the leg-side that went all the way to the boundary with 57 balls to spare.

The victory gave Australia an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.

Watson got into his stride quickly, after Australia suffered an early setback when Shaun Marsh was bowled by Fidel Edwards for a five-ball duck in the opening over of the chase.

But Watson found Australia captain Ricky Ponting a stable ally, and they put the visitors firmly on course for victory in a stand of 190 for the second wicket. The champagne moment for Watson came in the 32nd over when he pulled his 106th delivery from West Indies captain Chris Gayle through mid-wicket for his 13th four to reach his landmark.

Watson’s stroke-play overshadowed that from Ponting, but the Australia captain still reeled off a few delightful strokes and reached his 50 when he pushed his 57th ball from Benn into the covers for a single.

Earlier, choosing to field, the Aussies bowled and fielded with typical purpose and dismissed the West Indies for 223 in 48 overs.

Gayle hit five fours and three sixes in the top score of 53 from 54 balls, but several other batsmen were guilty of getting starts without carrying on.

Marshall made 35, Shivnarine Chanderpaul got 32, Ramnaresh Sarwan gathered 31, and Denesh Ramdin contributed 21.

Nathan Bracken was again Australia’s most successful bowler with three wickets for 26 runs from nine overs, and Symonds captured two for 42 from seven overs.

Scoreboard

WEST INDIES:

C. Gayle run out (Johnson) 53

X. Marshall c Ronchi b Watson 35

R. Sarwan c Symonds b Johnson 31

S. Chanderpaul c Ronchi b Symonds 32

D. Bravo lbw b Symonds 7

A. Fletcher st Ronchi b Bracken 12

D. Ramdin b Bracken 21

D. Sammy c and b Lee 3

D. Powell run out (Lee) 2

F. Edwards not out 7

S. Benn b Bracken 1

EXTRAS (LB-6, W-10, NB-3) 19

TOTAL (all out, 48 overs) 223

FALL OF WKTS: 1-86, 2-99, 3-160, 4-168, 5-172, 6-195, 7-211, 8-214, 9-220.

BOWLING: Lee 9-1-36-1 (3nb, 1w); Bracken 9-0-26-3; Johnson 8-1-41-1 (4w); Hopes 3-0-23-0; Symonds 7-0-42-2; Watson 5-0-23-1 (1w); Clarke 7-0-26-0.

AUSTRALIA:

S. Marsh b Edwards 0

S. Watson c Sarwan b Sammy 126

R. Ponting c Marshall b Gayle 69

M. Clarke not out 11

A. Symonds not out 8

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-9, NB-2) 13

Total (for three wkts, 40.3 overs) 227

TO BAT: M. Hussey, J. Hopes, L. Ronchi, B. Lee, M. Johnson, N. Bracken.

FALL OF WKTS: 1-1, 2-191, 3-207.

BOWLING: Edwards 6-0-35-1 (1nb, 2w); Powell 6-0-33-0 (1nb); Benn 10-1-59-0; Bravo 9-0-47-0 (2w); Sammy 4-0-20-1; Gayle 5-0-26-1; Marshall 0.3-0-5-0 (5w).

RESULT: Australia won by seven wickets.

SERIES: Australia lead five-match series 3-0.

UMPIRES: Asad Rauf (Pakistan) and N. Malcolm (West Indies).

TV UMPIRE: B. Doctrove (West Indies).

MATCH REFEREE: Roshan Mahanama (Sri Lanka).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Shane Watson (Australia).—AFP