Chris Gayle has rediscovered his form with the bat, blasting a quickfire 50 as the West Indies won the third T20 International against Australia, clinching the series with two games to go.
Australia had been hoping to seize the momentum after disappointing back-to-back losses in Saint Lucia, however they lost by six wickets, with the home side wrapping things up with 31 balls to go.
The team made three changes, with paceman Riley Meredith and batsmen Alex Carey and Ashton Turner replacing Ashton Agar, Ben McDermott and Josh Philippe.
But after the Australians won the toss and batted, the tourists made 6-141 off their 20-over allocation, with none of the Australian batsmen going on with it after at least four made starts.
Australia's leading batsman for the series, Mitchell Marsh, could only make 9 before being trapped in front by spinner Fabian Allen.
Matthew Wade (23), captain Aaron Finch (30), Moises Henriques (33) and Turner (24) were all unable to post a big score — the Australians managed only 11 fours and two sixes in the whole innings, as they set a target of 142 to win.
Australia got the early wicket of Andre Fletcher — who had been added for game three — as Mitchell Starc had the opener caught for 4 off the third ball of the innings. Lendl Simmons went for 15, dismissed by Meredith to make it 2-42 in the sixth over, but by then Gayle was already beginning to make his mark.
Gayle had been struggling for runs, but he found his mojo, hitting four fours and seven sixes.
He slugged three consecutive balls from Adam Zampa into the stands to reach his half-century, and took the game right away from Australia before getting a thick edge that went through to keeper Wade, departing for 67 off 38 balls.
The Australians tried hard to stave off defeat, and Meredith (3-48) next got rid of Dwayne Bravo for 7, but the target was at least 20 runs shy of what was needed, and Nicholas Pooran (32*) and Andre Russell (7*) saw the West Indies home.
The fourth match in the five-match series will be on Thursday morning (AEST) before the final game on Saturday.
