EAST LON­DON–West In­dies plumbed new depths on their tour of South Africa yes­ter­day, pro­duc­ing an ane­mic per­for­mance to hand the Pro­teas an un­com­pli­cat­ed nine-wick­et win and the five-match se­ries on a plat­ter.

Need­ing a win to stay alive in the se­ries af­ter falling be­hind 2�0 in the se­ries, West In­dies could on­ly muster a dread­ful 122 all out off 33.4 overs af­ter opt­ing to bat first at Buf­fa­lo Park.

Stroke-mak­er Mar­lon Samuels top scored with 26 but no oth­er bats­man could pass 20, as Man-of-the-Match seam­er Ver­non Phi­lan­der, with three for 27, and then leg-spin­ner Im­ran Tahir, with four for 28, ripped apart the Caribbean side's in­nings.

In re­ply, open­er Hashim Am­la stroked an un­beat­en 61 and Faf du Plessis, 51 not out, as they pro­pelled the hosts to their mod­est tar­get off just 24.2 overs and a win­ning 3�0 lead in the se­ries.

The right-hand­ed Am­la, who has been in ter­rif­ic form in the se­ries, faced 63 balls and count­ed nine fours while du Plessis, al­so a right-han­der, hit five fours in a 71-ball in­nings.

For Am­la, the knock was his third time past fifty in the se­ries, fol­low­ing his 66 in Dur­ban and his 153 not out in Jo­han­nes­burg last Sun­day. He has been dis­missed on­ly once.

Rilee Ris­souw was the on­ly South African ca­su­al­ty, mis-cu­ing a pull to Nars­ingh De­onar­ine at mid-off off cap­tain and pac­er Ja­son Hold­er for sev­en with the score on 27 in the sixth over.

Am­la and du Plessis then set­tled down in an un­bro­ken 97-run, stand for the sec­ond wick­et.

Phi­lan­der had ear­li­er struck telling blows at the top of the or­der, re­mov­ing both open­ers, to leave the Windies in strife at six for two in the fourth over.

The right-armer in­duced Dwayne Smith (5) in­to an edge be­hind off the first ball of the sec­ond over and then al­so had tal­is­man Chris Gayle (1) caught at the wick­et, dri­ving loose­ly at a full­ish de­liv­ery in the fourth over.

Samuels and left-han­der Nars­ingh De­onar­ine, (10) in his first match of the se­ries, stemmed the flow of wick­ets with a 27-run, third wick­et stand which proved the sec­ond high­est part­ner­ship of the in­nings.

Both bats­men were away with well-timed bound­aries, and ap­peared at ease against the South African at­tack un­til the in­tro­duc­tion of strike bowler Dale Steyn in the eighth over.

He had an im­me­di­ate im­pact, snar­ing his 150th ODI scalp by hav­ing De­onar­ine caught be­hind af­ter Am­la at first slip par­ried the ini­tial at­tempt to AB de Vil­liers.

De­onar­ine's dis­missal saw three wick­ets tum­ble for 19 runs in the space of 47 balls as De­nesh Ramdin dragged on to Steyn for two and Samuels, af­ter fac­ing 38 balls and strik­ing four fours, need­less­ly holed out to long off off Im­ran Tahir in the 17th over.

Lan­guish­ing at 52 for five, it was then left to Jonathan Carter, 18, and An­dre Rus­sell, 16, to save the in­nings from to­tal col­lapse with a stand of 31, the high­est part­ner­ship of the in­nings.

The left-hand­ed Carter cleared the ropes at mid-wick­et with Im­ran Tahir in the bowler's fourth over, the 24th of the in­nings, while Rus­sell got two bound­aries in a Steyn over, as West In­dies aimed for re­cov­ery.

West In­dies seemed to be fight­ing back when Rus­sell missed an ug­ly swipe at seam­er Morne Morkel and was bowled in the 25th over and six balls lat­er in the next over, Carter fol­lowed when he missed a pull at Im­ran Tahir, was hit on the back foot and ad­judged lbw.

The wick­ets of Car­los Brath­waite (4) and Jerome Tay­lor (0) added to the car­nage as West In­dies lost four wick­ets for 13 runs in quick time.

Tot­ter­ing on 96 for nine and in dan­ger of falling for their eighth low­est to­tal in ODIs, Sulie­man Benn clob­bered two fours and a six in a 19-ball 18, adding 26 for the last wick­et stand with Hold­er (17 not out), to steer the Windies away from to­tal em­bar­rass­ment. (CMC)

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Score­board

WEST IN­DIES

D Smith c wkp de Vil­liers b Phi­lan­der 5

C Gayle c wkp de Vil­liers b Phi­lan­der 1

N De­onar­ine c wkp de Vil­liers b Steyn 10

M Samuels c Rossouw b Im­ran Tahir 26

+D Ramdin b Steyn 2

J Carter lbw b Im­ran Tahir 18

A Rus­sell b Morkel 16

C Brath­waite lbw b Im­ran Tahir 4

�2J Hold­er not out 17

J Tay­lor lbw b Phi­lan­der 0

S Benn st de Vil­liers b Im­ran Tahir 18

Ex­tras (lb4, w1) 5

TO­TAL (all out, 33.4 overs) 122

Fall of wick­ets: 1-5 (Smith, 1.1 overs), 2-6 (Gayle, 3.4), 3-33 (De­onar­ine, 9), 4-43 (Ramdin, 12.3), 5-52 (Samuels, 16.5), 6-83 (Rus­sell, 24.2), 7-87 (Carter, 25.2), 8-95 (Brath­waite, 28.5), 9-96 (Tay­lor, 29.2), 10-122 (Benn, 33.4)

Bowl­ing: Morkel 7-0-26-1 (w1), Phi­lan­der 8-2-27-3, Steyn 6-1-21-2, Du­miny 3-0-11-0, Be­har­di­en 2-0-5-0, Im­ran Tahir 7.4-0-28-4.

SOUTH AFRICA

R Rous­souw c De­onar­ine b Hold­er 7

H Am­la not out 61

F du Plessis not out 51

Ex­tras (lb3, w2) 5

TO­TAL (1 wkt, 24.4 overs) 124

Did not bat: �2+AB de Vil­liers, JP Du­miny, D Miller, F Be­har­di­en, V Phi­lan­der, D Steyn, M Morkel, Im­ran Tahir

Fall of wick­ets: 1-27 (Rossouw, 5.4 overs).

Bowl­ing: Tay­lor 5-0-28-0 (w1), Benn 3-0-23-0, Hold­er 5-1-14-1, Rus­sell 5-0-15-0 (w1), De­onar­ine 1-0-5-0, Brath­waite 5-0-31-0, Gayle 0.4-0-5-0.

Re­sult: South Africa won by nine wick­ets.

Se­ries: South Africa lead five-match se­ries 3-0. Man-of-the-Match: V Phi­lan­der.

Toss: West In­dies.

Um­pires: J Cloete, S Ravi; TV � S Davis