South Africa Mark Boucher (left) celebrates the run-out of West Indies Captain Dwayne Bravo, who was thrown out by AB de Villiers (out of pic), during the fourth one-day cricket International in Durban, South Africa, yesterday.- AP

DURBAN, South Africa(CMC): South Africa's bowlers endured another ham-mering over the final 10 overs of the West Indies innings, but their batsmen returned the favour with interest, as the hosts stayed on course for a clean sweep of the five-match one-day international series with a five-wicket victory yesterday.

Responding to the challenging West Indies total of 263 for nine under lights at Kingsmead, the Proteas were given a flying start by their captain, Graeme Smith, who blazed away for a 36-ball 50 that included 10 typically bludgeoning boundaries from the big left-hander.

With that innings dominating a 77-run opening stand by just the 12th over and putting South Africa well ahead of the required rate, the hosts could even afford a rare failure from the prolific Jaques Kallis (1) as AB de Villiers (77) and JP Duminy (44) piloted their team to within sight of the target with a 79-run fourth-wicket stand.

Duminy's dismissal for 44 paved the way for departing hero Shaun Pollock (21 not out) and Mark Boucher (21 not out) to seal the win and a 4-0 series advantage with 13 balls to spare.

Immense value

Worth at least 20 runs in the field and having run-out Dwayne Bravo with another brilliant effort earlier in the day, de Villiers then restated his immense value to the team, passing 2,000 runs in ODIs on the way to his 12th half-century that required little in the way of pyrotechnic stroke-play. He struck seven fours.

South Africa will be pushing to complete a 5-0 drubbing of the tourists with a win in the final fixture tomorrow in Johannes-burg, a match that is already guaranteed a capacity crowd as fans prepare to say farewell to the retiring Pollock.

The all-rounder was inevitably the central figure here, where a near full house of 21,000 fans turned up to celebrate the 34-year-old's last international match on his home ground.

In keeping with a succession of impressive performances since announcing his intention to retire, the former captain did not disappoint, taking the wicket of joint top-scorer Sewnarine Chattergoon (48) to break a solid 97-run opening stand with Brenton Parchment.

Making the most of ideal batting conditions on a scorching afternoon after Bravo won the toss, Chattergoon and Parchment progressed with few difficulties their partnership remained steady at four runs per over almost all the way though until the Guyanese left-hander, within two runs of a second consecutive ODI half-century, edged Pollock to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher in the 24th over.

Despite being troubled by an injury to his left hamstring, he again looked compact and composed, only for a careless shot to bring about his demise and trigger a collapse in which three wickets fell for 11 runs.

Captain run out

Like his opening partner, Parchment reached 48 before being trapped lbw on the back leg by Andre Nel. The giant fast bowler, back in the team after missing the last two matches, then claimed the wicket of in-form batsman Marlon Samuels for four via a catch at midwicket by Herschelle Gibbs when the right-hander attempted to pull a delivery that was too full in length for such a shot.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Bravo added 42 for the fourth wicket, again without really collaring the bowling, until the captain was run out for 18 by yet another direct hit of the stumps by the outstanding deVilliers.

When Chanderpaul, on 28, gloved an attempted sweep at off-spinner Johan Botha to Graeme Smith at short fine-leg, the South African captain would have known his team was in control at 155 for five in the 39th over.

That control slipped over the final 11 overs, however, as first Patrick Browne and then Jerome Taylor launched spectacularly into the South African bowlers with Makhaya Ntini feeling the brunt of the assault. In his first match of the tournament, Ntini was thrashed for 44 runs off his final two overs to finish with one for 80 off nine overs.

Playing as the wicketkeeper/-batsman, Browne launched Ntini for consecutive sixes in reaching 34 off 24 balls before a mistimed heave gave Morne Morkel a simple caught-and-bowled chance.

Two more wickets followed quickly until Taylor found a relatively sturdy ally in last man Edwards. The pair crashed 57 runs off 34 balls in a new record last-wicket stand for the West Indies in ODI's against South Africa.

Paid heavy price

Taylor's unbeaten 43 off only 21 balls was especially impres-sive as the fast bowler's clean, powerful and generally straight hitting brought him two sixes and five fours and was more compelling evidence of his considerable potential to develop into a genuine all-rounder.

He should have had imme-diate reward in defence of the total, but Devon Smith, on the field in place of the injured Chattergoon, could not hold on to a diving effort at second slip as Graeme Smith edged the second ball of the innings before he had scored.

The South African skipper made the West Indies pay a heavy price for that lapse, both in terms of the runs scored and the manner in which his unbridled aggression wrenched the initiative away from the tourists.