Vadodara, January 31, 2007 -   Sachin Tendulkar gave glimpses of his vintage form with an imperious unbeaten century as India thrashed the West Indies by 160 runs in the fourth cricket one-dayer to clinch the series 3-1 here today.

The Indians rode on Tendulkar's 100 not out to rattle up an imposing 341 for three and then bundled out the Caribbeans for 181 with more than eight overs to spare in what turned out to be a lopsided contest at the IPCL Ground here as per PTI.

It was Tendulkar's 41st one-day hundred in his 378th appearance and was aided by a pulled six on bent knees and 10 fours in 76 balls. The Mumbai batsman completed his hundred with a single off the last ball of the innings, as he moved from 89 to the three-figure landmark from the last five balls of the Indian innings.

Skipper Rahul Dravid (78) and his predecessor Sourav Ganguly (68) also came good to make it a sublime top order performance that was backed by Mahendra Singh Dhoni with his trademark pyrotechnics, a 20-ball 40 not out that came as icing on the cake.

The West Indian chase was never on as Chris Gayle (6) became Ajit Agarkar's victim, for the third time in the series, in the third over of the innings.

Zaheer Khan accounted for the in-form Shivnarine Chanderpaul (14) before Irfan Pathan marked his return to the team with the wicket of Devon Smith (24).
Two run outs, including that of skipper Brian Lara (3), made it 83-5 and the match was virtually over then and there.

But the day clearly belonged to Tendulkar who showed his wonted touch to score his first century after four months and 13 ties, his last ton 141 not out also coming against the West Indies in the DLF series in Malaysia in September last year.

Tendulkar, who had scored two centuries at this venue in earlier ties, looked in superb form as he drove straight and to the covers in imperious style of old and pulled the short balls for boundaries. He was dropped by Lara and Dwayne Smith after he crossed the 80s.

The top-notch stuff dished out by the Big Three of Indian batting on a benign wicket after Lara opted to field ensured that the hosts bettered the previous highest total at this ground, of 291 by their rivals in their only previous encounter here four seasons ago.

Chasing the huge score was never going to be easy as the Windies found out.
They lost out-of-touch opener Gayle and his in-form partner Chanderpaul cheaply to be 32-2 by the eighth over.

Devon Smith (24) and Samuels seemed to be repairing the damage before the former was brilliantly caught by Yuvraj Singh who showed no ill-affects of his previous knee injury when he caught the ball in mid-air football goalkeeper-fashion to leave the tourists at a difficult 65 for three.

Any chance of a masterly knock in his last ODI in India by Lara was cut short in an unfortunate manner when Pathan deflected a drive by Samuels to the stumps at the non-striker's end on his follow-through with the Windies great's bat raised above the ground. He made only 3.

Another run out, this time with a direct hit at the striker's end by substitute Suresh Raina from backward point sent back Lendl Simmons for 4 and half the visitors' batting line up was back in the pavilion with just 83 on the board.

Samuels (55 in 62 balls, 7x4, 1x6) and Denesh Ramdin (40 in 52 balls, 5x4) put on 65 runs for the sixth wicket before both holed out in the deep with the asking rate having climbed alarmingly. The game was as good as over after this.

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