Summary Australia set 271-run target for West Indies in the Tri-Nation ODI Series final.
BRIDGETOWN (AFP) - Matthew Wade led a lower-order revival with a pugnacious half-century as Australia rallied to 270 for nine batting first against the West Indies in the final of the Tri-Nation One-Day International Series at Kensington Oval in Barbados on Sunday.
His unbeaten 57 off 52 deliveries was the top score of an innings that looked in danger of subsiding meekly when Mitchell Marsh fell to spinner Sulieman Benn at 173 for six in the 37th over.
However the wicketkeeper-batsman survived the wiles of the other slow bowling threat, Sunil Narine, and prospered against the seamers, crashing three sixes including one off the last ball of the innings to complete a recovery that saw 97 runs added over the last 13 overs.
West Indies were hampered by the absence of Shannon Gabriel at the end of the innings with the tearaway fast bowler leaving the field after completing seven overs.
His first four had proved expensive after Australian captain Steve Smith chose to bat first, but Gabriel returned midway through the innings to account for Smith (46) and the dangerous Glenn Maxwell in the same over.
Aaron Finch led the assault on Gabriel with a robust knock of 47, his highest ODI score against the West Indies and an innings highlighted by a straight hit for six off the fast bowler.
He lost opening partner Usman Khawaja to a catch at the wicket off Jason Holder in just the fifth over and looked set for a big innings when a miscued heave off Kieron Pollard offered Marlon Samuels a simple catch on the square-leg boundary.
Holder returned in the midst of the lower-order rally to snare Nathan Coulter-Nile, however the West Indies captain appeared to have miscalculated his bowling options in only allowing Carlos Brathwaite eight of a possible ten overs.
Brathwaite had accounted for George Bailey at the start of a disciplined, economical spell of seven overs which cost just 22 runs. Yet he was not called upon again until the last over of the innings despite Wade s defiance in partnerships with Mitchell Starc, Coulter-Nile and Adam Zampa.
