Whirlwind paceman Shaun Tait quickly extinguished any hope the West Indies had of winning their Twenty20 cricket clash against Australia at Bellerive Oval on Sunday.
The tourists limped to 8-141 in reply to Australia’s 8-179 after the Aussies struggled in the middle of their innings.
Australia easily claimed its 38-run win, its first in three matches against the Windies.
Tait started crushing the tourists’ run chase in his first over, dismissing Chris Gayle and Narsingh Deonarine with consecutive balls.
On the second ball of his rest at third man, Tait caught Lendl Simmons off Dirk Nannes before dismissing Kieron Pollard in his second over, leaving the visitors reeling at 4-26 after in the fourth over.
The capacity 15,500 crowd, sensing the contest was over at that point were relatively hushed as the Windies lost another four wickets for a lacklustre 115 runs.
Many started leaving the ground with five overs remaining in the match.
Tait returned 0-7 with second two overs after taking 3-14 from his first two-over spell.
Nannes returned 3-21 off his four overs.
Wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin top-scored with 44 off 26 balls for the West Indies.
He shared an inconsequential 73-run partnership with Runako Morton 40 off 41 balls.
Australian openers David Warner (49 off 32 balls) and Shane Watson (37 off 19 balls) recovered well after scoring only six runs off the first two overs, bowled by spinners Narsingh Deonarine and Nikita Miller.
Their 50-run partnership off 32 balls proved crucial, before Watson was out leaving the home side at 1-83 after 7.5 overs.
Australia reached 100 runs after 10.3 overs but failed to get another good partnership going after winning the toss.
They lost six wickets for 68 runs until Brad Haddin scored an unbeaten 37 off 16 balls to help the home side a solid total.
Nikita Miller (2-20 off four overs) was the best of the West Indies bowlers after skipper Chris Gayle (2-15 off two overs) and Dwayne Smith (2-38 off three overs).
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